BURIRAM, 1 May 2014 – The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC)’s Buriram Office has approved a new round of loans worth 49 million baht to rice farmers in the province who have not yet received money for their rice pledged with the government.
The loans have been extended to 786 unpaid rice farmers in Buriram for use in the purchase of equipment and other production factors to start the new rice season. These farmers are still waiting for government payment for their rice sold under the government’s rice pledging program that has unfortunately run out of fund. According to the BAAC, the government still owes 3 billion baht to 38,000 farmers.
According to the bank, it has paid 2.6 billion baht in loan to more than 26,000 affected farmers in Buriram, and another batch of 56 million baht is pending approval.
A provincial BAAC executive expressed his belief that the government would be able to find enough money to pay all the farmers.
