The National Rice Policy and Management Committee has approved three measures to maintain a balance between demand and supply of rice. This will ensure that rice prices in this year's crop won't plummet due to an oversupply during the harvest, observers say.
Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said the first measure concerns an 8.36 billion baht rice-pledging programme in which the government will offer a subsidy of 1,500 baht per tonne of rice pledged.
Of the 1,500 baht, 1,000 will go to the co-operative handling the rice pledging and the rest to the farmer who has his rice pledged under this scheme, said the minister, speaking after a meeting of the national committee on Friday.
During the scheme which runs until Feb 28 next year, farmers are allowed to pledge their rice for a duration of one to five months.
While taking part in this programme, rice farmers can also apply for a loan from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), which will offer from 9,000 to 12,500 baht per tonne for rice pledged under the government's programme, said the minister.
He said the loan offered per tonne of the Hom Mali rice pledged, for instance, has been raised to 12,500 baht from 12,000 baht in the past year.
The second measure concerns loans for rice farmer organisations, which will gather rice from farmers and pledge the product to the government in significant amounts to ensure a better deal, he said.
A total of 656.25 million baht has been earmarked for funding this loan-offering programme, while the rice pledging target is set at 1 million tonnes, he said.
Mr Pichai said that under this associated programme, the agricultural cooperatives will subsidise 1% and the government 3.5% of the interest rate charged to a loan granted for this purpose.
These loans will be offered until Sept 30 next year, while the interest subsidy period will last at most 15 months.
The last measure is an associated programme in which the government will subsidise 3% of the loan interest that private operators of a rice warehouse taking part in the rice-pledging scheme must pay.
These warehouse operators will be offered this financial assistance in exchange for helping handle pledged rice stocks for two to six months.