Kiosks let farmers check latest prices

       Farmers in some provinces will be able to check real-time product prices in various markets, local and foreign trade conditions, or even send questions to state officials through a new touch-screen computer system to be introduced next year.
       The device would be able to provide useful information such as early warnings of possible natural disasters, trade locations for produce, or prices of fertilisers,said Monthon Jiumcharoen, deputy secretary-general of the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE).
       "Farmers can adjust their prices more quickly once they receive the information," he said.
       The OAE, a department of the Agriculture Ministry, plans to install about 1,000 touch-screen kiosks in subdistricts of many provinces over the next few years.
       Initially, 50 kiosks will be installed next year in subdistricts in provinces where the OAE has offices, such as Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chon Buri,Surat Thani and Songkhla.
       There are about 7,000 subdistricts or tambons in the country and the OAE has been allocated about 20 million baht to run the project in the first year.
       "Even though the initial number of kiosks cannot support a large number of farmers, the project is a good start to help them access real-time information effectively," said Mr Monthon.
       As low-income earners, most Thai farmers are not able to get timely information about prices. Many obtain trade information from radio, television, newspapers, or traders in the neighbourhood.
       Mr Monthon said the computer was easy to use both offline and online and he expected farmers would not have a problem using the self-service kiosks.
       The OAE would provide a team of officials to update information and reply to questions from farmers, he said.
       He added that the project conformed with the government's new options plan for major crops - rice, cassava, and maize - in which farmers have to update trade data frequently.

Greenpeace tries to halt NZ feed import

       A dozen Greenpeace activists yesterday lashed themselves to a cargo ship in New Zealand to protest its shipment of animal feed produced on palm plantations that they blame for massive deforestation.
       The group claims millions of hectares of rain forest are being cut down to make way for the plantations, destroying animal habitats and seriously impacting the climate. The protesters boarded the Hong Kong-registered East Ambition from a motorised dinghy while the ship was anchored off the port of Tauranga,chaining themselves to cargo cranes in an attempt to stop the cargo of palm kernel from reaching shore.
       Police later boarded the ship and arrested two protesters.
       The activists say the palm kernel animal feed is from Indonesia and is headed for New Zealand dairy farms.
       Greenpeace campaigner Simon Boxer called on Prime Minister John Key to halt imports of the product and address intensive dairy farming in New Zealand.After tourism, the dairy industry is the second-biggest foreign currency earner with a 24% share.

New strategy aims to add value to exports

       The Agriculture Ministry expects the new strategy for exports to enable Thailand to ship more of its farm products as finished and higher-value goods rather than raw commodities.
       The plan, to be implemented from 2010 through 2012, aims at streamlining the working process among related governmental agencies with a clearer analysis of problems obstructing certain export markets for farm goods, said Apichart Jongskul, secretary-general of the Office of Agricultural Economics,the Agriculture Ministry's think-tank.The plan also contains approaches to dealing with new forms of non-tariff barriers imposed by buying countries.
       The strategic plan would also aim to enlarge global market shares for key products while maintaining the country's position as a market leader.
       "For example, Thailand is the world's fifth-largest chicken exporter but we have only a 5% share in the total market.We're looking at ways to increase the market share," he said.
       Thailand is also the world's secondlargest sugar exporter, controlling 10%of the market. The country also ranks top in exports of several other farm products such as shrimp, canned tuna,rice, rubber, tapioca and pineapple.
       Mr Apichart has pinned his hopes on the strategic plans, which he says would promote the export growth of farm products by at least 10% a year from 1.34 trillion baht in 2008.
       The OAE yesterday organised a brainstorming session among various agencies, farmers, exporters and economists to gather ideas before finalising the draft plans.
       Chulalongkorn University economist Somphop Manarangsan suggested that the agency consider factors that could have significant effects on world farm products, especially speculation in commodity and futures markets.
       Other factors that would affect global farm trade are what he terms the "8 Fs": food security, food safety; food health, food taste, food readiness, food beauty, food eco-friendliness and food social consciousness.
       "The increasing social consciousness has forced Thai manufacturers to take precaution to make sure their products,meat for instance, meet international requirements of animal welfare and no child labour is used.
       "These conditions are becoming necessary requirements for future world trade," Dr Somphop added.
       Nikorn Jamnong, an adviser to the Agriculture Minister, said that the draft would also prepare Thai farmers to tackle unavoidable barriers including market liberalisation under several trade pacts.
       Starting next year, the country is bound to open its farm market to Asean members under the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) agreement. Twenty-three products are likely to be affected by the market opening.
       "The import duty on rice will be zero and we have to lessen the impacts on local farmers. For rice, scrapping the rice-pledging programme is one crucial step," he said.
       He added that the ministry planned to use part of the 150-million-baht FTA fund to strengthen Thai farmers as well.

The Year of Biodiversity

       The United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) has designated 2010 as the Year of Biodiversity. The organisation, together with Bayer, invites children between the ages of 6 and 14 to enter the 19th International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment.
       This year's subject is "Biodiversity: Connecting with Nature". Global and regional winners will be awarded prize-money and other prizes, including a trip to the official award ceremony together with a chaperone.
       There is no restriction on the painting materials used. The pictures should be in A3 or A4 format. On the back of the picture, name and surname, address, telephone number and email address of the child must be written legibly.
       Entries can be submitted to the Unep Regional Office, Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue until April 15, 2010.
       For further information, visit http://www.unep.org/tunza, call 02-232-7018 or email viraya.khunprom.vk@bayer-ag.de.

Options plan faces graft threat

       State officials nationwide must guarantee that the government's new agricultural options programme to be launched next month is run transparently, says Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
       Mr Abhisit tasked provincial governors and officials with the need to ensure transparency under the programme.
       The government's new options programme plans to support about 4-5 million farming families -3.7 million from rice farming,400,000 from tapioca and 370,000 from maize - said Mr Abhisit
       Some 5.16 million farming families have registered with the scheme to date,according to the Agriculture Ministry.
       The ministry expected the scheme to cover 22.7 million tonnes of paddy in the first crop,4.2 million tonnes of maize,and 23.58 million tonnes of tapioca.
       The government, through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), would spend a total 43 billion baht on options for rice, maize and tapioca in the 2009/2010 harvest.
       BAAC acting president Ennoo Suesuwan said as much as 25 billion baht of the total would be allocated for rice in the scheme with the remaining 18 billion used for tapioca and maize.
       The scheme would focus mainly on small-scale farmers, who would have their options capped at 20 tonnes for maize,100 for tapioca and 20 for rice.
       The options programme for maize,cassava and rice will replace the traditional price pledging scheme that has been a huge financial burden on the government and taxpayers for years.
       The price pledging programme was said to benefit only 800,000-900,000 families, mostly from rich and large-scale farmers in irrigated areas.
       Mr Abhisit said the pledging programme hurt the competitiveness of Thai rice as high subsidy prices encouraged local farmers to grow rice for short-term harvests at the expense of quality.
       The options programme would not distort the market, as reference prices set by the government on each crop would be based on production costs and market prices, he said.
       "The government no longer has a huge budget to implement the price pledging programme that only benefited certain farmers, brought about a lot of loopholes for corruption and induced an influx of crops from neighbouring countries," he said.

FARMING LAND AS COLLATERAL

       The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives is ready to help farmers grow crops on land distributed to them by the Treasury Department by allowing them to use the leased land as collateral.
       Pramote Nontakote, senior executive vice president, said yesterday that the farmers are eligible for loans of up to half the appraised value of the land with full repayment within the lease term.
       The loans must be used for the same activities that the farmers proposed to the Treasury Department.
       Since April, the bank has extended Bt2.65 million in such loans to 18 farmers.
       Yesterday, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva handed out nearly 8,000 rai of land to 1,182 farmers in Pathum Thani and Saraburi.
       Deputy Finance Minister Pruttichai Damrongrat said after the turnover ceremony that the land would be transferred to poor farmers and the unemployed to raise food and energy crops.
       The farmers would also be trained on crops and fertiliser, as well as land and water development.
       The Treasury Department has set a target to allocate 200,000 rai in 25 provinces this year.
       Already 52,887 rai of treasury land in four provinces has been leased out to 5,325 farmers, while 10,000 rai in Sa Kaew will be leased soon to 900 farmers who are planning to grow corn, tapioca and eucalyptus trees.
       Nearly 5,000 rai will be offered to 1,100 farmers in Kalasin for food crops and about 1,200 rai in Buri Ram to 100 farmers to plant rice, tapioca and sugarcane.
       The agrarian land scheme, kicked off last year, is set to allocate one million rai over five years. Each household can receive up to 15 rai, with minimum rent of Bt20 per rai per year.
       The lease must be for at least three years.

Seed firms push for protection

       The government is being urged to strictly enforce the Plant Variety Protection Act to prevent the smuggling or imitation of locally developed crop seeds from damaging Thailand's position as a regional seed manufacturing hub.
       "Thailand has great potential to become a seed manufacturing hub, but legal enforcement of plant variety protection is still weak," said Pacholk Pongpanich, president of the Thai Seed Trade Association (THASTA).
       "Without serious enforcement, this could lead to seed manufacturers relocating their production bases to other countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and China."
       Lingering disagreements between the public and private sectors on the ratio the private sector needs to contribute to the plant variety protection fund for new plant registration were another stumbling block for Thai development,said Mr Pacholk.
       Annual industry losses caused by from seed smuggling and imitation are estimated at 300-400 million baht.
       Imitation occurs when a vendor copies a proprietary seed, often acquired from smuggled stock. The bootlegged product is typically sold at a lower price than the developer's as there are no research and development costs to recoup.
       Mr Pacholk said developing a new plant variety generally takes eight to 10 years and costs about 10-20 million baht a year.
       Thailand's seed trade was estimated to be worth 6 billion baht last year, with projected values unchanged this year.Exports account for 2.54 billion baht,mostly for maize, vegetables and fruits.
       Export values exclude the shipments generated by parent seeds for which income is generated from royalties.
       Thailand imported 603 million baht worth of seeds last year, mostly for maize.
       There are about 100 seed producers in Thailand, with six to seven large-sized producers, mostly from foreign brands.
       Mr Pacholk said Thailand is the de facto centre of Asia's maize seed manufacturing industry, with shipments amounting to one billion baht a year.
       Thailand is also a key regional production base for contracted vegetable manufacturing comprising cantaloupes,cucumbers, watermelons, water morning glory, cabbage, sweet corn and chilies.
       Global seed sales are estimated at $32 billion, of which Asia generates $8 billion.
       Seed exports in Asia-Pacific run at about $450 million annually, with Japan,China, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand the top players respectively.
       Mr Pacholk also hailed the government's investment plan for water management and irrigation systems funded by its 1.43-trillion-baht second economic stimulus package, saying an improved water system would help raise Thailand's productivity.
       To promote seed trading, Thailand will host the Asian Seed Congress 2009 in Bangkok from Nov 8-12.

Chia Meng cooks up ready-to-eat germinated brown rice

       Chia Meng Rice Group, the country's leading rice trader and exporter, plans tolaunch ready-to-eat GABA, or germinated brown rice, as the latest innovation in Thailand's rice industry.
       Under the "Golden Phoenix Ready Rice" brand, the product offers cooked GABA rice in a microwavable container with a lengthy shelf-life of up to two years, said Vasana Manathanya, brand and marketing manager of Chia Meng's subsidiary, Bangsue Chia Meng Rice Mill Co."The product is aimed at healthconscious target groups and a choice for consumers' demand for new lifestyle products," she said.
       The company plans to market GABA rice in November after receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration.Health stores, premium retail outlets and direct sales are key selling channels.Chia Meng Group may also export the rice, especially to Asian markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
       Since the product employs advanced know-how, its retail prices will be high,at about 30 to 35 baht for a 180-gramme cup, or three times the price of normal rice.
       Gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA is naturally produced by soaking brown rice in water for about four to six hours.Researchers have found that GABA has health benefits, helping lower blood pressure, improve kidney function and treat insomnia.
       Chia Meng last week also launched a range of nutritious rice under the V-Life brand to tap into the growing market for healthy grain products among Thai consumers.
       The healthy rice market is a strong niche market worth about 450 million baht this year and expected to rise to 1 billion in the next few years, said Sopan Manathanya, president of Chia Meng Marketing Co.
       The company now has about 50 million baht in sales in the segment, giving it an 11% share. The products are aimed at upper-end buyers with strong purchasing power.
       "V-Life products will help increase our sales income to about 100 million baht and raise the market share to 20%by the year-end," said Mrs Sopan.
       The Rice Department expects to see more varieties of healthy rice enter the market soon to offer health benefits and add value to the grain.
       Several varieties of nutritious rice including rice mixed with vitamins, herbcoated rice and GABA rice - have been offered in recent years to tap the growth,said Laddawan Kunnoot, director of the Bureau of Rice Products Development.
       Although this is a niche market compared with about 10 million tonnes of rice consumed locally each year, the department supports any developments that will eventually increase income for farmers, says Ms Laddawan."It's a winwin for all sides," she said.
       The department has regularly conducted research and development for innovations to rice and is willing to share its findings with manufacturers for commercial development, she added.