The cabinet has approved a central budget of nearly 30 billion baht to assist farmers with fertiliser costs, which is expected to increase rice production by 10% in this harvest season.
According to government spokesman Chai Wacharonke, the cabinet agreed on a central emergency budget of 29.9 billion baht to support a co-payment fertiliser scheme to reduce farmers' costs to purchase fertiliser.
Under the scheme, the government will subsidise fertiliser costs for farmers at a rate of 500 baht per rai, up to a maximum of 20 rai per person, for the 2024/25 planting season.
The scheme is scheduled to run from July 15, 2024 to May 31, 2025.
Farmers can buy fertiliser from stores registered with state agencies, according to 15 state-determined fertiliser formulas, and the sales prices must be lower than market prices.
The purchases must be made using the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives' application.
Farmers wishing to participate must register with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry. Roughly 4.68 million farmers are estimated to benefit from this scheme.
According to Mr Chai, last year the government spent 56 billion baht to provide financial assistance to farmers, reducing their expenses by 1,000 baht per person for up to 20 rai.
However, most of this financial aid went to landowners, while tenant farmers did not benefit.
This year the approach changed to directly subsidise fertiliser costs for farmers, ensuring the benefits reach planters, he said.
In a related development, the cabinet approved a central budget of 4.7 billion baht for water management and storage, which is an additional project beyond the usual operations of relevant agencies.
This decision follows the prime minister's statement that rainfall is forecast to be 10% higher this year than in 2023, requiring an updated plan to accommodate the expanded volume of water.
Some 125,000 rai of land is expected to benefit from the policy, with water storage capacity increased by 115 million cubic metres, helping 67,000 people.
