February 24, 2025
BANGKOK – Rice farmers are the largest agricultural group in Thailand, making them a crucial voter base for political parties seeking to secure seats in Parliament and form a government. With over 4.3 million farming households, their votes are highly sought after.
Consequently, political parties often introduce policies related to farmers, especially those impacting rice prices. Past policies, such as income guarantees and rice pledging schemes, have been used to attract farmers’ support and win elections.
In recent years, however, rice farmer protests demanding higher rice prices have been rare, as prices in Thailand have risen above 10,000 baht per ton. By March 2024, they had reached 11,000-16,000 baht per ton, the highest in 17 years.
However, after the Pheu Thai Party has been in power for two years, the situation has changed. The golden era of high rice prices has ended, and farmers now face a steep decline in prices, dropping to only 6,000-8,000 baht per ton. This has sparked a resurgence in rice farmer protests, demanding that the government address the plummeting rice prices.
On February 9, rice farmers gathered at the Ministry of Commerce, demanding solutions to the ongoing issue. They proposed two main measures:
● A rice price guarantee scheme for paddy rice (15% moisture content) at 11,000 baht per ton, aiming to stabilise the price farmers can sell their rice for, as current rice with 25% moisture is only fetching 6,000-7,000 baht per ton.
● A compensation scheme to support farmers’ income.
Their demands were ignored until February 14, when farmers staged a protest by blocking three lanes of the Asia Highway, leaving only one lane open for traffic. This caused severe congestion, inconveniencing road users. The governor of Ayutthaya province intervened, negotiating with the protesters and agreeing to forward their proposals to the relevant authorities, leading to the dispersal of the protest.
The protest sent a strong signal to the Pheu Thai-led coalition government to urgently address the issue. Meanwhile, several members of Parliament raised concerns about the declining rice prices in parliamentary meetings.
On February 20, Pheu Thai Party MPs, particularly those from the lower Northern and Central regions, expressed dissatisfaction with Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan , who was supposed to address the issue, but instead travelled abroad, allowing agricultural product prices, including cassava and especially rice, to plummet. Pichai attributed the fall in the price of rice to India’s decision to resume rice exports after halting them in mid-2023.
The issue intensified when farmers from central Thailand submitted a letter to the government, urging swift action to address the crisis. In response, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called Pichai, who had just returned from Switzerland, for an urgent meeting with Agriculture Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat to discuss the matter.
Later that evening, Pichai led a meeting of the National Rice Policy and Management Committee’s marketing subcommittee, where they approved three measures to assist farmers:
● Delayed second crop planting loans
● 6% interest rate compensation for mill operators, and
● Setting up rice procurement points at 300 baht above market price per ton. These measures, with a budget of 1.893 billion baht, will be presented to the National Rice Policy Committee for approval next week.
Pramote Jaroensilp, president of the Thai Farmers and Agricultural Association, stated that the current measures do not address the urgent needs of farmers who have been protesting. Furthermore, these measures open opportunities for policy corruption and are not well-prepared in terms of the institutions involved in the programmes.
The association has called for the reinstatement of rice price guarantees, of at least 12,000 baht per ton for rice with less than 15% moisture content, and at least 10,000 baht per ton for rice with moisture content under 25%.
The issue of falling rice prices remains a hot potato for the government and is unlikely to be resolved easily, as the government’s stance differs from that of the farmers. If the government does not meet the farmers’ demands, it could become a time bomb for the Pheu Thai Party, facing the potential of a farmers’ protest.
However, whether it is the government’s measures to alleviate the farmers’ hardship or the farmers’ demands for the reinstatement of income guarantee policies, both of these solutions are merely “temporary fixes” and fail to address the root cause of the problem.
In the past, problem-solving has often involved providing aid or compensation, primarily funded by the budget, without addressing the underlying causes. It must be acknowledged that Thai rice faces challenges, including high production costs, lower yields per rai compared to competing countries, fluctuations in rice prices according to market mechanisms, and the fact that Thai rice varieties are not in demand from importers, among other factors.
This year, it is estimated that rice production will reach 33-34 million tons of paddy rice, or 23 million tons of white rice, with an export target of 7.5 million tons.
It is time to seriously address the issue of Thai rice, not just offer superficial solutions. Otherwise, the issue of falling rice prices will become a time bomb for the Pheu Thai government if it remains in power for its full term.