Farmers from about 40 provinces plan to gather in front of Government House on Tuesday, demanding that the rice-pledging price be maintained at 15,000 baht per tonne until at least the end of this crop season, Pheu Thai MP for Ayuthaya Witthaya Buranasiri said on Monday.
Mr Witthaya made the announcement after a meeting with Association of Thai Farmers president Wichean Puanglamchiak, who represents networks of rice farmers from more than 40 provinces.
The meeting in Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya discussed farmer's views on the government's plan to lower the pledging price from 15,000 to 12,000 baht per tonne for ordinary rice.
The Association of Thai Farmers wants the 15,000 baht pledge price to continue at least until the end of the current crop pledging season on Sept 30.
If the price must be lowered to 12,000 baht per tonne, the change should not be implemented until the beginning of the next crop season, they argue.
However, farmers in the South and in Lop Buri province want the second round of rice pledging to continue until the end of November.
Mr Wichean said farmers believe the government should review the cabinet resolution to lower the rice pledging price, because rice growers face problems with high production costs.
"Farmers from throughout the country will travel by bus and converge at the Royal Plaza at 9am tomorrow (Tuesday) before moving to Government House to submit a letter to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who chairs the NRPC (National Price Policy Committee)," he said.
The government will be given five to seven days to decide whether to comply with the farmers' demands. Then the farmers will file a petition with the Administrative Court and the Constitution Court, Mr Wichean said.
Rice farmers in Ang Thong (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)
PM's Office Minister Varathep Rattanakorn said the government would consider the farmers' demands and would investigate problems of alleged corruption in the implementation of the rice scheme.
He said the Commerce and Finance ministries were meanwhile preparing measures to help farmers affected by the cut in the pledging price. The measures would help farmers to lower their production costs and increase the quality of rice, he said.
More than 100 rice farmers in Phichit province have lodged police complaints with the Marketing Organisation for Farmers accusing workers at a privately owned rice mill of the theft of 8,000 tonnes of paddy under the government's pledging scheme.
Phichit police chief Kritsana Siripiyawat said on Monday that a team of 30 investigators had been assigned to specifically handle the rice farmers' complaints.
Pol Maj-Gen Kritsana said the provincial court had been asked to quickly summarise the cases so police can take legal action against workers of L-Gold Manufacture rice mill.
He said most farmers who came to the police station appeared to be under stress. Many them had debts totalling hundreds of thousands of baht. They could not sow new crops because their creditors refused to lend them more money to buy seed, fertiliser and fuel.
He said some farmers had to pledge property such as motorcycles used to take their children to school, and they had no money to pay their children's daily school allowances.
In Ratchaburi province, police said a rice farmer on Monday morning collapsed and died after learning that the government will lower the pledging price to 12,000 baht from 15,000 baht per tonne.
Police named the farmer as Lua Srimuk, 61.
Relatives told police that Lua was stressed because she was not able to harvest her rice before the reduced price comes into effect on June 29.
Relatives said Lua was hoping to pay off her debt with the earnings from the next harvest. The government announcement came as a huge shock to her, and she collapsed.
Komsan Pradermchai, chairman of the Tambon Pak Tho Administration Organisation in Ratchaburi, said the government's price cut announcement had affected many farmers, because most could not meet the harvest deadline of June 29.