Most farmers in seven provinces in the Chao Phraya river basin are happy with the government’s drought relief measures, said Mr Pumisak Rasri, director of the Agricultural Economics Operations Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, on Friday.
The positive response of most of the farmers toward the government’s drought relief measures was based on the opinion survey of 416 samples conducted by the operations centre in Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Lop Buri, Nakhon Nayok, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi.
The opinion survey shows 97.1 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the performance of the ministry in relieving the drought problem; 99.8 percent said they were better informed of the drought situation; 68.1 percent admitted that their livelihood has improved because of the relief measures and 94.6 percent believed the drought information provided by the state was reliable.
Regarding the measure urging farmers to switch to cultivating plants which consume less water, the findings showed that only 29.7 percent of the respondents agreed with the change of crops as most were not convinced that the switching to crops which consume less water would generate enough revenue to make a living.
