Bangkok, The Ministry of Agriculture may have to withdraw the implementation of the 'Half-Half Fertilizer' project that the cabinet has already approved because some farmers and coalition parties do not agree to proceed. The project's budget of 29 billion baht will be used to support half of the fertilizer costs according to the specified formula and the other half will be paid by farmers. Thammanat indicated that the project details may be reviewed and postponed until next year's wet season. The Cabinet meeting on June 25, 2024 approved the project to support fertilizer to reduce production costs for rice farmers (Half-Half Fertilizer) "Half-Half Fertilizer" for the 2024/2025 production season as proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, represented by the Rice Department. The project budget framework is 29,980.1695 million baht (disbursed as actually paid). The objective is to help reduce rice production costs for farmers and increase production efficiency. The project implementation perio d is from July 15, 2024 to July 31, 2025. The goal is to reduce rice production costs for farmers by 10%, resulting in farmers having a 10% increase in income, allowing them to have household spending power and a better quality of life. In addition, they will also receive good quality fertilizer that can increase rice production efficiency and improve rice quality to meet market demand. For the project implementation approach, some fertilizer costs will be supported for farmers, with the government providing half and farmers paying the other half to purchase chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers, and biological fertilizers at a price not exceeding 500 baht per rai, with a maximum of 20 rai per household (not exceeding 10,000 baht per household). The target is 4.68 million farmer households registered with the Department of Agricultural Extension. Farmers participating in the project can order fertilizers and biological products from an application jointly developed by the Rice Department and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC). After the Cabinet approved, it was the step where the Rice Department would invite fertilizer traders to join the project. The fertilizer must be sold at a fertilizer price according to the specified formula, lower than the market price, and sold at the same price to solve the problem of farmers buying expensive fertilizer. However, some farmers and government coalition parties disagreed because they wanted to help farmers by implementing a project to support management costs and develop the quality of rice farmers' products or the "1,000 baht per rai" project, which Colonel Thammanat explained many times that it was a separate project. Although there was a half-and-half fertilizer project, if when the harvest season came and the rice price dropped, the 1,000 baht per rai project could be implemented to help farmers as well. Until there was another discussion in the Cabinet meeting on July 9. For fertilizers to participate in the project, they must be fertil izers that are registered or have a certificate of notification in accordance with the Fertilizer Act. As for biological products, they must be registered in accordance with the Hazardous Substances Act. Farmers participating in the project can choose to receive support for fertilizers for their rice fields from 13 initially registered items: (1) Fertilizer formula 25-7-14 (2) Fertilizer formula 20-8-20 (3) Fertilizer formula 20-10-12 (4) Fertilizer formula 30-3-3 (5) Urea fertilizer 46-0-0 (6) Fertilizer formula 18-12-6 (7) Fertilizer formula 16-8-8 (8) Fertilizer formula 16-12-8 (9) Fertilizer formula 16-16-8 (10) Fertilizer formula 16-20-0 (11) Fertilizer formula 20-20-0 (12) Fertilizer formula 15-15-15 (13) Fertilizer formula 16-16-16 (14) Fertilizer formula 13-13-24 (15) Registered organic fertilizers or Use organic fertilizers that have received an organic fertilizer registration certificate (16) Biological products that have received a hazardous substance registration certificate. Under the project, t he Department of Agricultural Extension is assigned to expedite the registration and updating of farmer registrations in accordance with the Farmer Registration and Updating Manual, while the Department of Cooperative Promotion will recruit agricultural cooperatives as fertilizer and biological product distribution points. In procuring fertilizers, the Cooperative Promotion Department informs the names of fertilizer and biological product operators for agricultural cooperatives to select. Fertilizer prices are set according to the announcement of the Rice Department. As for delivering fertilizers and biological products to agricultural cooperatives, fertilizer and biological product operators must deliver them along with a report of the results of fertilizer and biological product analysis. Steps for rice farmers to join the project: They can apply for rights according to the Half-Half Fertilizer and Biological Products Project information system via the BAAC application. As for the payment of fertilizer an d biological products contributions by rice farmers, farmers must pay the fertilizer and biological products contributions as requested, while BAAC transfers the payment of fertilizer and biological products according to the report that the agricultural cooperatives pay fertilizer and biological products to farmers. The latest is that Colonel Thammanat Prompao, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, stated that the project may be postponed to the next year's wet season rice planting season. He confirmed that the project aims to increase rice production efficiency and reduce rice production costs, but there are obstacles because fertilizer traders who stockpile fertilizer are at a disadvantage. In addition, there may be insufficient time to publicize to farmers, so some farmers have already planted rice. Therefore, he has assigned the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture to convene a meeting of the Ministry's and Rice Department's project driving committees to consider ways to help farmers, s uch as whether to continue this project this year or next year. If it is postponed to this year, what measures will be taken to support farmers this year? Then, it will be brought up for discussion in the cabinet meeting tomorrow. If the half-and-half fertilizer project is postponed to next year, the cabinet resolution will be revised to support rice farmers in accordance with the new measures that the ministry will set. Source: Thai News Agency
Sunday, September 08, 2024