Farm sector urges govt to draw up

The lack of supporting information will lead farmers to face losses. However, the farm sector is exposed to the vagaries of nature, which is an unpredictable factor. As a result, advanced technology to upgrade farm crop quality is need¬ed as well as big silos to hold stock when faced with a surplus.

Commodity goods enjoyed rising prices during the first half of this year. However, the con¬tinued negative mood in financial sectors since the US subprime mort¬gage troubles, the bankruptcy of investment banks and falling oil price since the third quarter, have forced prices to drop.

With the uncertain policy, farm¬ers cannot learn more about price and demand in the future.

Chen Wong, president of Thai Tapioca Trade Association, said cas¬sava price has dropped since the US credit crunch in September. In par¬ticular, the price has dropped every¬day in October in accordance with oil prices.

Cassava price is quoted at Bt1.8 per kilogramme compared with the peak price of Bt2.70 in February this year. Total production is forecast to reach 29 mil¬lion tonnes, up 15 per cent as yield per rai increased by 7 per cent.

The Cabinet last week approved a budget of Bt4.75 billion to guarantee the cassava price at Bt1.8 per kilogramme. However, growers want a guaranteed price of Bt2.50 per kilo¬gramme.

He said grain prices have reached the bottom and tended to be steady. The prices of key grains have dropped to a record low, for instance wheat dropped by 60 per cent and maize by 50 per cent.

As a result, both countries have handled exceedingly high stock¬piles.

Thai crude palm oil hit the record high of Bt44 per kg, and farmers enjoyed the palm fruit price at Bt6 per kg in March this year. However, the price dropped to Bt3.8 and to Bt2.6 per kg now. In addition, the industry is facing a crude oil over¬supply problem.

Total crude oil production reached 1.4 million tonnes this year, which exceeded demand by 300,000 tonnes. Of the total pro¬duction, 70 per cent targeted domestic consumption and the rest for biodiesel production.

Wiwan said the serious problem came after the government allowed import of 30,000 tonnes early this year to prevent shortage later in the year. However, the production is higher than the projection.

After September 26, the world rubber price dramatically dropped as China, the biggest consumer, stopped purchasing for seven days due to its long holiday to celebrate National Day. Then the price hit the floor on the next two days leading to market panic.

Thai rubber price hit the bottom at Bt48 per kg on October 17. The price, however, has adjusted to Bt5060 per kg now.

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, as the world's biggest rubber producers, have agreed to reduce their production in line with the drop in car demand . They also cooperated in cutting down rubber trees, which are older than 20 years ,by 169,000 hectares or about 3.56 million rais. Production of these three countries account for 80 per cent of world rubber.

Montri Congtrakultien, chief executive officer and president of crop integration business group of Charoen Pokphand Group, said Thailand should concentrate on increasing production of farm goods by introducing hybrid strains. It will help farmers cope with rising pro¬duction costs.

For example, Thai rice yields an average of 800 kg per rai compared with over 1,000 kg in Vietnam and China.

Apichart Jongsakul, secretarygeneral of Office of Agricultural Economics, said the office will launch a special service via mobile phone. It will allow farmers to have more information on marketing in terms of crop prices and marketing trends.