Rice checks turn up 10% decay

Rice checks turn up 10% decay

Most silo stocks, records in good order

A rice audit committee has found 10% of the rice stock under the former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra government's rice-pledging scheme had problems, mainly of deteriorating quality and record discrepancies.

Assistant army chief Chatchai Sarikallaya, chairman of the Rice Policy and Management Committee, yesterday said the rice audit committee has checked stocks at 1,290 out of all 1,787 warehouses, or 72% of the total, and found 80% of the stock was found to be of good quality.

Only 10% of the rice-pledge stock was degraded with its quality not matching the records kept.

Gen Chatchai, also deputy chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)'s economic affairs team, said there was no need to speed up selling rice stocks for the time being.

The state of the market would be considered before the rice stocks were sold to avoid affecting rice prices.

The committee would neither consider introducing rice insurance nor rice-pledging schemes, but would focus on encouraging farmers to grow quality rice and other substitute crops, he said during a meeting of the Rice Policy and Management Committee.

During the meeting, he proposed a production and marketing strategy be included in the panel's work. The strategy was aimed at urging farmers to produce quality rice and sell their crops at suitable prices.

After the inspection of rice stocks was completed, the panel would report its findings to the NCPO.

He instructed state agencies to closely follow up their work to ensure it was in line with the NCPO's measures to help farmers.

He also asked them to create better understanding among farmers about the NCPO's work guidelines to solve farmers' problems.

Gen Chatchai had asked state agencies to place more emphasis on increasing crop yields to boost income for farmers and use the sufficiency economy philosophy as a guideline to set agricultural strategies.

He had also ordered local authorities to speed up opening agricultural information centres across the country to keep farmers abreast of information.

Before the meeting, NCPO chief Prayuth Chan-ocha yesterday told the Rice Policy and Management Committee that the NCPO has set up centres to buy agricultural produce in border areas as part of a special economic zone policy.

The centres would help prevent the smuggling of crops from neighbouring countries, Gen Prayuth told the meeting.

He asked the panel to look into the possibility of strengthening cooperatives systems to manage agricultural produce. He also asked about the panel's plans for selling rice stock.

Meanwhile, former Democrat MP Warong Detkitvikorm said it would be hard to take action against those involved in irregularities in the rice stocks.

On his Facebook page, the former Democrat MP for Phitsanulok said the rice inspections found substandard or missing rice at some warehouses.

As several agencies colluded in various rice scams leading to irregularities, it was hard to find evidence against them, he said.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (1)