BANGKOK, Sept 9 – More than 3,000 rubber farmers have applied for the government’s financial aid at Bt1,260 per rai (0.4 acre) of rubber plantation, Deputy Prime Minister/Agriculture Minister Yukol Limlaemthong said today.
The cabinet’s resolution on financial assistance was rejected by rubber farmers in the South while those in other regions reluctantly accepted it.
Mr Yukol said other assistance measures would be carefully studied but it would not be easy for the state to pay for the margin between buying and selling prices.
He said the rubber price in the market has started to climb up at the latest rate of Bt79.71 per kilogramme for third grade rubber sheets.
“The Bt1,260/rai financial aid is equivalent to Bt6 per kg and the government has suspended levy collection on rubber exports at Bt3/kg. All in all, farmers get Bt85/kg for their rubber,” he said.
Farmers in Thailand’s rubber-growing region in the South have insisted on a guaranteed price of Bt95/kg. They vowed to renew their protest on Sunday should the government fail to follow their demand.
Mr Yukol earlier announced collaborations with the Education Ministry and several upper level educational institutions to jointly develop agricultural manpower to replace the ageing generation, now in their 50s on the average.
The target was to create at least 30,000 so-called “smart farmers” as part of the government’s sustainable agricultural development, he said.
