date:Jan 07, 2013
is expected to hit 440 billion baht.
Beyond financial cost, the losses from the programme may be felt in the longer term, noted the World Bank report. The high padi prices have made farmers increase the number of crops each year by producing lower quality rice.
Thailand's rice yield is already one of the lowest among rice growers in the world, and continued subsidies to rice production may be slowing a needed transformation of Thai agriculture, it said.