Farmers to get interest-free loans for water reservoirs to fight drought problem

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Farmers to get interest-free loans for water reservoirs to fight drought problem

By THE NATION

 

 

The Cabinet has approved interest-free loans totalling Bt508.2 million to farmers who wish to build water reservoirs on their lands to fight the drought problem, Government Deputy Spokeswoman Ratchada Thanadirek said on Monday (February 24).

 

“The loans will be distributed via the Farmer Aid Fund with no interest for six years, as proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture,” she said. “The aim of this programme is to encourage farmers to build and manage their own water supply and reduce the reliance on natural water supply and royal irrigation system, which is not enough to support off-season farming.”

 

Ratchada added that under this programme, each farmer will be allowed a loan of up to Bt50,000 for building a reservoir two metres deep with 1 rai area, or for digging an artesian well to tap groundwater. The money will cover both labour fee and equipment. Any expense exceeding that will have to be covered by the farmer.

 

“Some 10,000 farmers, who are members of 350 farmer associations in 51 provinces country wide, are expected to join the programme,” she added.

“Eligible farmers must have never received financial aid from other government projects of a similar nature, and must legally own the land on which they will build a reservoir or artesian well. In case they wish to build it on rented land, they must have written permission from the land owner. Lastly, the accumulated farmland to utilise the reservoir or well must exceed 10 rai per farmer.”

 

This programme will run for six years until 2025. Repayment will start after two years since the farmer receives the loan to let them accumulate profit from using the water supply. If the loanee fails to repay the debt in four years, the Farmer Aid Fund will start adding 3 per cent interest annually to the remaining debt until it is fully paid.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30382779

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-02-25

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[ParkerN]

Don't know about reservoirs, but I'm pretty sure I read that Prawit has budgeted 1 million baht for each well drilled.

 

Mine cost me 30,000THB.

 

Brown envelopes anyone? Get your brown envelopes here...

[dyertribe]

Not much good building reservoirs if there is no rain to fill them ... until it rains it's just a hole in the ground.

[KhunBENQ]

And what have the farmers done here over the last years?

Draining and filling up their reservoirs with soil, cutting trees, clearing land for even more thirsty sugar.

It gives me a headache to see that.

Sugar price going down? What to do? Plant more.

 

[Redline]

More loans-have the army do it for free

[ParkerN]

25 minutes ago, Redline said:

More loans-have the army do it for free

Good idea. Have them put something back into the society they've been ripping off for decades.

 

The whole 'we'll-loan-you-1-million-baht-interest-free-for-a-30,000-baht-well-and-we'll-keep-the-rest-of-what-is-budgeted-while-pretending-to-look-after-you' schtick is now much too transparent for the government to keep using it.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by ParkerN

[Scott Tracy]

30,000 for a well? Blimey. That's expensive.

[ParkerN]

31 minutes ago, Scott Tracy said:

30,000 for a well? Blimey. That's expensive.

Called Nam Badan in TL. MIne cost 25,000THB. I lifted that to 30,000 on the assuption that they're not as corrupt as I think they are (yes, yes, I know...).

 

Hey ho, still a big envelope.

 

[Enki]

Did any of you actually ever took part in such a program? It is pretty difficult to cheat and not hand out all the money ... just saying. Thai haters of the finest again ...

[Enki]

15 hours ago, dyertribe said:

Not much good building reservoirs if there is no rain to fill them ... until it rains it's just a hole in the ground.

There is enough rain, and the point of a reservoir is to hold it back for a second harvest or to improve the first one.

[plachon]

9 hours ago, Redline said:

More loans-have the army do it for free

That's been done before and it was an unmitigated disaster....called the Green Isaan project under Chavalit. More corruption, nepotism and technical incompetence than you'd believe possible....all down to the Boys in Green. There is no "free" in Thailand.....someone has to pay for it, and it's all a question of who manages the budget and how transparent it is....you trust the Army on that score? ????

[plachon]

13 minutes ago, Enki said:

Did any of you actually ever took part in such a program? It is pretty difficult to cheat and not hand out all the money ... just saying. Thai haters of the finest again ...

Closely monitored and witnessed dozens of these schemes over the years, from mega-dams to small farm pond schemes like this. Everyone has been characterised by a remarkable degree of corruption and mismanagement. Very easy to cheat, whether you're a landowner or official involved in the implementation of the project. And the ministers and senior bureaucrats at the top of the scheme expect a 30 % skim of the budget at the absolute minimum. Thaksin had a similar scheme for digging farm ponds, administered by his trusty Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, Sudurat Keyurapan. She was known as "Madam Ha Sip Percent", such was her and her co-TRT cronies greed at the time. That's 50 % skim FYI....I don't doubt that this scheme will be any different....Welcome to Thailand! ????

[Redline]

8 hours ago, plachon said:

That's been done before and it was an unmitigated disaster....called the Green Isaan project under Chavalit. More corruption, nepotism and technical incompetence than you'd believe possible....all down to the Boys in Green. There is no "free" in Thailand.....someone has to pay for it, and it's all a question of who manages the budget and how transparent it is....you trust the Army on that score? ????

Oh god-nothing works ????

[ParkerN]

10 hours ago, plachon said:

Closely monitored and witnessed dozens of these schemes over the years, from mega-dams to small farm pond schemes like this. Everyone has been characterised by a remarkable degree of corruption and mismanagement. Very easy to cheat, whether you're a landowner or official involved in the implementation of the project. And the ministers and senior bureaucrats at the top of the scheme expect a 30 % skim of the budget at the absolute minimum. Thaksin had a similar scheme for digging farm ponds, administered by his trusty Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, Sudurat Keyurapan. She was known as "Madam Ha Sip Percent", such was her and her co-TRT cronies greed at the time. That's 50 % skim FYI....I don't doubt that this scheme will be any different....Welcome to Thailand! ????

 

A loud clap for the insightful comment about the lady you describe, who was also known as being Thaksin's 'hungriest' minister. Her in charge of the Red-shirts is a real travesty. Limited ability but unlimited appetite.

 

Did anyone notice the Thai-o-philes are gathering their clans - again.

 

No matter how stupid the Thais are, no matter how lazy, or corrupt or venal, or whatever, there are always the muppets who'll come scootering in to say they're that 'no, Thais are wonderful'.

 

If it's of any interest, the reason is simple. One tends to like people who are like you and whose intelligence is about the same as yours and it helps if either you're Thai (in which case you shouln't be posting here) or you've been in Thailand for about ten minutes (ib which case you should learn a little about life in TL before venturing an opinion. Therefore, if you criticise Thais, you're actually criticising the Thai-o-philes. Can't have that, nonono.

They to remember Mark Twain's comment on this matter 'Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt'.

 

Enjoy...

[ParkerN]

1 hour ago, Redline said:

Oh god-nothing works ????

 

Not quite right. Corruption works, and many millions of Thais will attest.

 

To borrow a line from the much maligned Gordon Gekko, 'corruption is good'. In Thailand anyway.

 

Tried and tested in so many different ways..