Rubber planters have threatened to protest after prices plummeted to the lowest level in 10 years, saying some of them no longer afford to send their children to school.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha vowed to stand firm against the growers' growing pressure.
- Prayut stands firm: No additional help for farmers
Raw rubber sheets were 34.05 baht a kg while RSS3 was 34.12 baht on Thursday, down 0.20 baht and 0.39 respectively in line with global oil prices. Other factors affecting the prices are the sluggish Chinese economy, as well as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.
Rubber farmers urged the government to provide temporary relief by guaranteeing a price of not less than 60 baht a kg.
The government last year approved compensation of 1,500 baht a rai but the planters said the procedure to apply for it was complicated.
Yuso Ake, who led a network of farmers in the six lower southern provinces of Pattani, Yala Narathiwat, Songkhla, Satun and Phattalung, told Matichon Online on Thursday the rubber farmers were on their last legs.
"Some of us no longer have the money to send our children to school," he claimed.
The network has already submitted a proposal to the government.
They want the government to set up factories that use rubber as a raw material to make products for local use such as car tyres.
Authorities should also keep rubber prices above cost, which they claim is 62 baht a kilogramme.
A group of planters in Trang also threatened on Thursday to stage a hunger strike.
Saksarerk Sriprasart, their representative, urged the removal of Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikulya.
"When he was commerce minister, he approved palm oil imports, resulting in a sharp drop of local prices. When he became the farm minister, he sold 200,000 tonnes of rubber to China, resulting in an unexpectedly prolonged price slump that lasts until now," he said.
Mr Saksarerk also urged the government to keep the lid on consumer goods prices because government officials' salaries had already been raised, pushing up the prices of products and services.
His group also wants the government to encourage planters to stop tapping trees and to compensate them.