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Published on April 9, 2008

Deputy Agriculture Minister Sompat Kaewpijit said the Cabinet asked the ministry to confer with the Budget Bureau on the exact amount it needed to finance the imports.

The move is aimed at helping farmers cope with the soaring price of domestic fertiliser.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told the Cabinet meeting he would propose a barter deal to Indonesia in which agricultural products would be traded for fertiliser.

He assigned the ministry to survey farmers' demand for fertiliser and encourage them to use organic instead of chemical fertiliser in the long run.

Before the meeting, Agriculture Minister Somsak Prissanananthakul said the ministry planned to import 300,000-400,000 tonnes of fertiliser at a cost of between Bt3 billion and Bt4 billion.

The Nation