About 70 farmers marched on temporary offices of the Department of Internal Trade (DIT) Wednesday to demand payment for the crops they pledged at the Support Art and Crafts International Centre of Thailand building in Ayutthaya’s Bang sai district on Wednesday.
The group was led by Sa-ard Suksuddaen, deputy chairman of the Ayutthaya Farmers Council. He said the state owes over 87 million baht to 400 crop growers who pledged their rice paddy during the 2012-2013 pledging period.
Mr Sa-ard submitted the farmers’ petition to DIT deputy director Nopporn Linthong.
Ms Nopporn assured the crop growers that they would get their money. However, she said they will have to be patient as there are many ahead of them in line to receive payments from the rice scheme.
From 2012-2013, many farmers pledged large amounts of rice worth around 1.57 billion baht. The government has yet to pay out more than 630 million baht.
Ms Nopporn added that the Department of Internal Trade will meet with the National Rice Policy Committee and the Bank of Agriculture and Agriculture Co-operatives to find solutions to the nationwide issue.