The National Rice Policy and Management Committee will be asked to review the 30-billion-baht fertiliser subsidy programme for 4.68 million rice farmers due to apparent difficulties with the scheme.
The scheme, intended to help cut farmers' costs, has been met with a barrage of criticism largely due to the scheme's co-pay requirement.
Under the subsidy, farmers would receive at most 500 baht per rai, or up to 10,000 baht per person. However, farmers would be required to pay half the costs upfront.
Farmers complain they would have to take out loans to get cash to pay for the fertiliser, and they would have to buy from the participating cooperatives only.
There are growing calls for the government to bring back the earlier programme, under which farmers were paid 1,000 baht per rai to buy needed materials.
Prayoon Insakul, the permanent secretary for agriculture, said on Saturday the ministry has gathered input from all stakeholders including farmers, and agreed the scheme should be reviewed.
The move is in line with an instruction from Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Capt Thamanat Prompow, who told him to speed up discussions with other executives at the ministry.
Mr Prayoon said most farmers are unable to meet the co-payment requirement, and several have already purchased fertiliser because the growing season has already begun.
The permanent secretary said more than 2.91 million farmers registered with the ministry have started planting, covering 39.6 million rai, which represents 63.23% of total rice farming.
Additionally, there are insufficient cooperatives to distribute the fertiliser, and the scheme could disrupt the cooperatives' own fertiliser sales programme, he said.
Mr Prayoon said the ministry will ask the National Rice Policy and Management Committee to review the subsidy programme and forward its decision to the cabinet for a decision on whether changes were needed.
The fertiliser subsidy was approved in principle by the cabinet on June 25 and has been controversial ever since. On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai defended the scheme, saying it did not replace the 1,000-baht per rai subsidy.
He said the 1,000-baht per rai subsidy was an intervention to help shore up the falling prices, adding it was not scrapped and could be introduced again in the future as needs required.
The fertiliser subsidy programme, on the other hand, was intended to reduce production costs but was delayed because the MPs failed to communicate with the farmers.