BANGKOK, Nov 19 (TNA) — The executive board of the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAT) convened an urgent meeting today to submit a proposal for the cabinet to approve 1,800 baht per rai (1,600 square meter) subsidies for rubber farmers.
Acting governor of the Rubber Authority of Thailand Yiam Thawarorit said that an urgent board meeting was called today to expedite emergency measures to help rubber farmers following a missive that was issued by the Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Grisada Boonrach for solutions to be found so that it can be tabled for cabinet approval tomorrow.
A proposal to supply emergency subsidies of 1,800 baht/rai not exceeding 15 rai (approximately 5.93 acre) per family to rubber farmers who are registered members with the RAT was agreed upon. Currently there are slightly more than 1 million rubber families registered and about 14.5 million rai (around 5.732 million acres) of land granted permits for use as rubber plantations.
With regards to demands for checks to be made on the stockpile of 100,000 tons of rubber or 100 million kg of rubber sheets in government warehouses Mr Yiam revealed that they had received reports that all the stored rubber was accounted for but taking into account the long period of storage a certain degree of degradation was unavoidable.
These stockpiles were bought off farmers by the previous government to control oversupply and at present the total amount that is left is 104,000 tons.
The acting governor stated that the RAT was in the process of finding alternative domestic uses for the stockpiles such as rubberised footpath, surfacing for children’s playground and waterproof flooring for livestock pens as well as others before they degrade any further. (TNA)
