Natural Society. Following a May 22nd coup in Southeast Asia’s Thailand, the new military-led government has unveiled plans to support organic agriculture and sustainable agricultural reforms. This is an unprecedented departure from the unsustainable populist subsidies that proceeded it in Thailand, one which can be found in various degrees of malfunction around the globe.
Text by Christina Sarich for Natural Society | July 3rd, 2014
In a speech made before the nation, the Royal Thai Army’s General Prayuth Chan-ocha said:
“We are trying to find measures to fix the prices of agricultural products without bringing more problems like those that happened in the past. Some of these measures include cost reduction such as costs of fertilizers and seedlings, increased productivity while reducing areas being used,employ[ing] natural fertilizer and reduc[ing] chemical fertilizers, use of local raw materials, and increase product cost and quality in order to compete with other countries.
At present, NCPO has giving priority to paying the rice farmers. The Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives owes the rice farmers a large sum of money. BAAC is now in the process of trying to solve this problem.”