Poor Thai farmers guard their fields as rice prices soar
Thanaporn Promyamyai
Crime had never really been a problem in Takham Uthao’s impoverished
rice farming village in central Thailand until prices for his crop began
hitting record highs.
The price of Thai rice jumped 50 per cent last month to levels never
before seen, turning the output from Takham’s paddy fields into a far
more valuable commodity just as the harvest was getting underway.
Now staving off thieves from his paddies is part of his daily
routine. “I always have to listen closely and act fast if my dogs bark,
so I can run to see what’s going on,” the 48-year-old farmer told AFP.
Takham said he can’t blame people for stealing a bit of his crop as
soaring global rice prices have pushed up costs at home too and food
inflation has made pork, chicken and even vegetables more expensive. But
rice is the biggest problem, he said, because without it Thais do not
feel as if they have had a real meal. “Rice is life,” Takham said.
Rice is the staple food for more than half the world’s population,
and plays an important role not just at mealtime but in religious
festivals and celebrations.
So far, thieves have only taken a small part of Takham’s crop, but
countries across Asia are training a keen eye on harvests by Thai
farmers such as him as their output will have an enormous bearing on
what people in the region eat this year — and how much they’ll pay for
it.
Floods
Floods in Bangladesh, pests in Vietnam and bad weather in China have
all cut into rice supplies at a time when Asia’s national stockpiles
were already low, said Concepcion Calpe, a senior economist monitoring
the rice market for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
“Because of the kind of pressure that (reduced stocks) was putting on
prices, the exporters responded by limiting exports and pushing up
prices even more,” she said.
‘Rice is life’
Thailand is the world’s leading exporter of rice, shipping an
estimated 9.5 million tonnes overseas last year. Although exporters
stand to benefit from the high prices, India and Vietnam — the world’s
second and third biggest exporters respectively — are restricting
exports amid fears they will not have enough for their domestic markets.
That has left rice importers such as the Philippines and Sri Lanka
scrambling to sew up deals to guarantee their own supplies.
The benchmark Thai variety, Pathumthani fragrant rice, was priced on
Wednesday at 930 dollars per tonne, up 52 per cent from a month earlier,
the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in its weekly price survey.
The Philippines on Friday announced major new investments to boost
agricultural production but to deal with the short-term problem,
officials have resorted to asking restaurants to offer half portions of
rice to avoid wastage. The country’s biggest fastfood chain, Jollibee,
has already agreed to halve its rice servings.
In Bangladesh, the country’s military chief has reportedly urged
villagers to eat potatoes rather than rice, and a paramilitary group has
been ordered to monitor rice markets to prevent retailers from
manipulating the situation.
Skyrocketing prices have encouraged hoarding across the region, as
dealers hold on to their stocks in the hope that prices will rise
further.
“The middle men and the millers, even the farmers themselves, they
watch the news. They know they should wait for better prices before they
sell,” said one Thai exporter, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Storage
Poor farmers in Thailand say they are not benefiting from the record
prices. Few can afford storage in silos so they sell their rice as soon
as it is harvested. Standing beside her rice fields north of Bangkok,
38-year-old Kratae Najan says inflation also affects the cost of growing
rice.
“Everything from rice seeds to fertilizers to gasoline is more
expensive,” she said. “I don’t feel more money in my pockets, even with
the high prices.”
Banglane, AFP
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