BANGKOK, 5 June 2013 Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra reaffirmed that the government would push for elevation of the quality of life of farmers nationwide through its policies of raising income, cost cutting, and providing an easy access to funding.
The Prime Minister was speaking to a group of farmer representatives who paid a courtesy call on her at Government House on the occasion of the National Rice day. According to her, farmers are the main driving force to boost national economy, and so the government is implementing several measures to raise their income and well-being.
She gave as examples the government policies on the rice pledging scheme, the farmer’s credit card and farmer’s debt suspension projects. Besides, the government is accelerating the development of irrigation systems, water resources, and rice quality. She indicated that there are many more projects to come under her administration. Among them would be a zoning project for cultivation of specific plants, a project to enhance agricultural skills of farmers, and a project to give farmers an access to more funds such as the Women Development Fund, and the community fund.
The Prime Minister said that the government would use the information and ideas obtained from the farmer representatives as guidelines in lifting the farmers’ quality of life and fulfill its aim to promote Thai rice as an internationally recognized food.
