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Salient. Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 41 No. 3. March 13 1978

Relief

Relief

The government, no doubt acutely aware that peasant discontent was one of the chief factors that led to the downfall of the Thai military dictatorship in October 1973, has already announced measures to assist the affected farmers, especially the tenant farmers. $6.3 million will be spent on giving employment to tenant farmers e.g. clearing irrigation canals, repairing farm roads. Vegetable (e.g. cabbage) seeds, chicks, and fish fry will be distributed to enable them to earn income from other sources.

Another measure to alleviate the farmers' hardship was a directive to Bank Pertanian (Agricultural Bank) to give a year's grace to affected farmers on repayment of loans obtained through the Farmers' Organisations Authority (FOA). However, this measure will help mainly rich peasants as most poor (tenant) farmers are unable or unwilling to obtain FOA loans because these lending arrangements are biased against poor farmers e.g. the farmers' organisations generally demand relatively high membership subscriptions, ration credit according to the size of a member's farm, stipulate that credit be used for production purposes only (whereas poor farmers often require loans for their families' subsistance), and set strict conditions on security for loans extended e.g. land deeds, or buffalo licence.

It is highly probable that the padi crop disaster will push afflicted farmers, especially poor farmers, even deeper into the clutches of rural money-lenders, who still provide the bulk of loans in the countryside because of the failure of government sources of credit like FOA(above) to assist poor farmers. Once in debt the poor farmer will find it difficult — given high interest rates and low income — to extricate himself from the cycle of indebtedness. Soon he will be borrowing to repay the interest on his original loan, and before long his "credit worthyness" runs out with the result that he has to sell his farm to repay his debts. He then joins the approximately 10,000 families made landless every year.