BANGKOK, 3 August 2015 The Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) is carrying out a month-long followup survey in fifty-eight provinces affected by the drought disaster where thousands of community-initiated projects have been implemented to add more income to farmers’ pockets.
OAE Secretary-General Lersak Rewtrakulpaiboon revealed on Monday that the survey started on 13 July and will end in the next two weeks on 16 August. The team has already visited 516 projects so far.
“The projects are part of the government’s efforts to reduce farmers’ hardship due to the prevailing drought. Each community in the 58 provinces designed their own development projects in a way members of the community can replenish income lost to suspended cultivation,” said Mr.Lersak.
A total of 6,598 projects have been executed under this initiative. Each of the projects employed between 5 and 900 workers depending on the requirements of the particular project. Farmers working for the projects could earn 200-400 baht a day each, while skilled workers got higher daily wage of up to 500 baht. Some worked on a piece-by-piece basis from which they could gain up to ten thousand baht a job.
Leading members of each community, in cooperation with the Agricultural Technology Service Center, are now working on assessment of the projects before forwarding the report to the government.
Results of the OAE survey will be handed over to the ministries in charge of the projects, before being forwarded to the cabinet for use as a guidance for the project’s development in the following years.
