Falling crop prices, debts plague farmers

Falling crop prices, debts plague farmers

Declining farm prices and debt problems have remained the major concerns of Thai farmers, but they are still happy with a farming career, according to the latest survey by the BAAC Research Center.

Of the 1,000 respondents, 35.2% identified falling farm prices as their biggest concern, followed by higher household debts (29.5%), rising costs and natural disasters (12.3% each), droughts (6.9%) and the ageing trend of farmers which leads to lower output (2.5%).

Despite the concerns, 75.8% of the respondents said they were happy with their job.

Asked to identify the factors to their happiness, 42% chose occupational security, followed by happy families (32.7%), government subsidies for farm products (14.1%) and good health (7.3%).

By crop type, rice farmers are the most contented with their job (48.3%), followed by rubber planters (38.5%), cassava (33.3%) and sugar cane (31.1%).

But Prasit Boonchoey, key spokesman of the Thai Farmers Association, disagreed with the survey's results, saying it was conducted mainly to please the government.

He said the survey could have done better by making the questions more specific.

"Although farmers have received 15,000 baht a tonne for paddy for two years now, they have yet to see a way out of debt," said Mr Prasit.

He also believes the farm-income guarantee programme of the previous government could give more benefits to more farmers.

While the government's pledging scheme has helped to lift farm prices, the costs of farm essentials and minimum wages have also risen, so their net incomes have not really improved in real terms.

"This is especially the case for small-scale farmers with low output. This group of farmers gain almost nothing from the pledging scheme compared with large farmers," said Mr Prasit.

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