The political bickering over how to help farmers suffering from low rice prices does not serve any purpose except exacerbating their hardship. Without a sincere halt to politicising rice prices, it is the rice farmers -- the very people everyone agrees deserve assistance -- who are destined to suffer the most. Academic think-tanks and rice researchers agree the future lies in improving the quality of Thai rice while using technology and innovation to increase productivity. In the long run, rice farmers must be able to stand on their own feet and earn a profit from their grain by themselves. It must be remembered that for rice farmers any help in releasing their stocks now would be better than a long-term dream.

Source: Bangkok Post November 18, 2016 23:32 UTC