Rice farmers have begged the government for help as their stockpiles, which were not bought last year because of oversupply, are backing up and leaving no room for this year's looming harvest.
The problem is particularly bad in Surin where farmers are racing against time to harvest Hom Mali paddy from fields that have been hard hit by floods from swollen waterways.
Paddy that has already been harvested is being laid out on village roads in a desperate attempt to dry it.
Nga Sukjit, 57, of tambon Muang Leang in Chom Phra district, said harvesting was underway, but barns were still full from last year. The grain was withheld from the market under the storage-pledging programme.
Mr Nga urged the government to find ways to help farmers release their stockpiles so they can free-up space for this year's harvest.
In tambon Muang Leang, 73 of 157 households joined the storage-pledging scheme for the 2015 harvesting season carried out by the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.
Only five households have discharged their stocks.
In the past two weeks, the government has rolled out new subsidy schemes to help farmers who grow Hom Mali, white rice and Pathum Thani fragrant paddy and store it in barns for a designated period. This has upset growers who do not have their own storage.
In Pathum Thani, Kingkan Thongkaew, 31, of Thanyaburi district, complained she had no barns to store rice and needed to sell her output directly to buyers.
Ms Kingkan said the price for her Pathum Thani fragrant paddy had dropped from above 10,000 baht a tonne to between 5,000 and 6,000 baht. She needed to sell her harvest quickly to pay for other expenses, including debts.
Praphai Thongkaew, a 60-year-old farmer in Lam Luk Ka district, said rice prices were too low and it was up to the government to find ways to push up the prices to at least 8,000-9,000 baht a tonne.
In Phitsanulok's Muang district, local authorities allowed farmers to sell their produce in front of the provincial hall yesterday in a bid to help growers suffering from low prices. However, only a handful of the buyers turned up.
Supannika Onsri, head of a rice quality improvement group in Phrom Phiram district, said members needed to sell their grain as many still had 10 tonnes of rice stockpiled.
In Nakhon Ratchasima, space at the iconic Thao Suranari Monument was set aside for rice sales yesterday to help farmers. Rice was priced between 25 and 30 baht per kilogramme.
The event in Muang Nakhon Ratchasima municipality drew a huge response from buyers.
At least 10 tonnes of rice was expected to be sold by the end of today.
Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the Prayut administration supported the grouping of farmers into cooperatives as part of sustainable measures to tackle falling crop prices.
He said the groups would help farmers to have more bargaining power and get access to help provided by the authorities.
The government has set up 107 distribution centres for cooperatives' products and more are likely, Lt Gen Sansern said. Total sales through the centres registered more than 6.3 billion baht in revenue in the first six months since the centres were formed in October last year.
The administration has also increased sale channels for farmers to customers worldwide through www.co-opclick.com.
"The state-sponsored online market would help farmers and cooperatives reduce expenses and cost," Lt Gen Sansern said.
Meanwhile, about one quarter of people in northeastern provinces believe the recent fall in rice prices was caused by a lack of preparation, according to E-Saan Poll.
Just over 17% blamed middlemen and rice mills, and 16% believe the government had failed to cut back on paddy fields.