Capt Thamanat Prompow has vowed to push ahead with the royal projects initiated by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great and make use of the late king's guidelines to improve the lives of 36 million farmers nationwide.
Capt Thamanat made this pledge on Wednesday at his first meeting with senior executives of the agriculture ministry. He also unveiled a new few new ideas on how to help farmers with their problems.
"I give importance to all royal projects initiated by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great because they have proven to be effective in fixing people's problems,'' he said.
The ministry could earn from several successful royally-initiated projects, he said, such as the building up of many reservoirs across the country to help farmers during the dry season.
"Farmers should have enough water for farming, especially the major source of water for rice plantations along the Chao Phraya River basin [in the Central Plains] which is now at risk of water shortages due to the longer drought season," he said.
Capt Thamanat added that he is concerned about the impact of climate change on Thailand.
The ministry, he said, will turn cabinet's concerns on climate change into specific measures to limit damage to farmers, who are considered a vulnerable group and who are among the most affected by global warming.
As one possible option, the ministry would propose insurance for crops by working with privately owned insurance companies, Capt Thamanat said.
He said the government loses over 100 billion baht a year compensating farmers' crop losses caused by natural disasters such as droughts and floods.
The proposed crop insurance would be spent under a budget of approximately 30 billion baht.
Capt Thamanat did not elaborate on the details.
Meanwhile, he said he has ordered the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) to bury the carcasses of 4,300 tonnes of smuggled pork in a landfill in Sa Kaeo Animal Nutrition Research and Development Centre.
The smuggled pork was confiscated by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) in June.
The pork was kept in 161 containers and was worth over 500 million baht.
He said that the prevention and suppression of illegal agricultural goods imports, especially smuggled pork, has been strictly endorsed by the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry.
The goal is to avoid animal epidemics, market manipulation and consumer protection.