While a fierce debate is raging over whether the government's rice subsidy is more effective than the rice-pledging policy initiated by the Yingluck Shinawatra administration, at least the cash giveaways...have proved a better method of passing on subsidies to needy farmers. A farmer in Kalasin province plants rice. Most rice farmers still want to receive subsidies. PATTARAPONG CHATPATTARASILL
About 60% of the government's 40-billion-baht handout has been given to farmers in the Northeast and upper North who are poorer than those in other regions, said Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives... (BAAC) president Luck Wajananawat.