Director-General of the Rice Department hints that the ‘Half-Half Fertilizer’ program may be postponed to next year.

Bangkok, The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture held a meeting with subordinate agencies about the Half-Half Fertilizer Project, but did not give any interviews after farmers and some sectors disagreed. Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Rice Department admitted that it may have to be postponed to next year because of heavy criticism about farmers not receiving contributions and the cooperatives not being ready to join the project. Mr. Prayoon Insakul, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, chaired the 2nd National Rice Farmers' Cost-Reducing Fertilizer Management Committee Meeting in 2024, attended by relevant agencies such as the Rice Department, Department of Agricultural Extension, Department of Cooperative Promotion, and Office of Agricultural Economics to summarize the performance of each agency in implementing the Half-Half Fertilizer Project after obstacles caused the implementation period to lapse. Before the meeting, Mr. Prayoon said that today th ere will be good news about the half-and-half fertilizer program, by having the Department of Agricultural Extension report information about farmers and the Department of Cooperative Promotion report the readiness of cooperatives to participate in the project. The meeting was tense and lasted for about 45 minutes, with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture not giving any interviews. Before the meeting, Mr. Natthakit Kongthip, Director-General of the Rice Department, said that the 50-50 fertilizer project may have to be postponed to the next season because there are still differences of opinion among farmers. Some farmers do not have money to buy fertilizer, some farmers have already started planting, and there are only a few cooperatives participating in the project, or only 500 out of more than 1,000 cooperatives nationwide. Although it cannot be implemented as originally planned, this project may be postponed to the next planting season in January or February 2025, which is still within the implementation timeframe of May 31, 2025. As for the fertilizer and biological product manufacturers registered with the Rice Department, more than 180 of them will not be affected if the project is postponed because it is only a registration and no action has been taken yet. This must wait for the resolution of the meeting of the executive committee of the project to support fertilizer to reduce production costs for rice farmers at the national level to consider again what the approach will be. Source: Thai News Agency