BANGKOK, Jan 23 – Farmers in a number of rice-producing provinces have intensified pressure against the government for its failure to pay for the rice they have sold under the subsidy programme.
Kittisak Ratanavaraha, leader of the Network of Farmers in the Lower North, said the government has repeatedly delayed payment to farmers who subsequently came to Bangkok to demand the government’s explanation on the latest development.
About 500 farmers from Sing Buri and nearby provinces blockaded one side of the Asian Highway at Km 69-70 in Phrom Buri district yesterday to press the government to pay for delivered rice from the 2013/14 harvest.
Charin Singdee, leader of Sing Buri Farmers Council, said the other side of Asian Highway may be closed when more farmers from nearby provinces join the protest.
He said farmers in central provinces have resolved that the government should return the delivered rice to them if it cannot sell the grain.
For rice that has been delivered for some time, the government must add interest to the payment, he said, insisting that the farmers’ protests were not politically motivated.
They really are in financial trouble as the government has promised the payment since late last year, he said, adding that farmers will sell rice for the coming harvest to rice millers.
Kittisak Bunchuen, president of the Nakhon Ratchasima Farmers Council, and farmer representatives from 32 districts presented an open letter to Deputy Governor Vinai Vithayanukul, pressing for payment under the rice pledging plan and threatening to strengthen their demonstrations if the government fails to take action.
In the northern province of Pichit, farmers from 12 districts rallied at the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) Phichit branch, asking for delay payment of their debts to the bank as they were waiting to be paid by the government after having delivered rice to the state rice mills under the rice pledging plan.
The bank manager told farmers that BAAC headquarters would give a clearer explanation next week.
