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Inequality in Rice Farmers’ Access to a Government Assistance Program in Rural Thailand
Author(s) -
Laiprakobsup Thanapan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asian politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1943-0787
pISSN - 1943-0779
DOI - 10.1111/aspp.12336
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , poverty , inequality , production (economics) , business , economic growth , agricultural economics , rural area , economics , political science , mathematical analysis , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics , law , macroeconomics
The government of Thailand attempts to alleviate rice farmers’ poverty through several public programs. One of the government's assistance programs is support for rice production. The “1,000 baht per rai program” aims to redistribute public money to help poor rice farmers reduce their production and cultivation costs. In implementation, however, this program suffers from inequality in granting access to the government's assistance program. This paper aims to explain the pattern of inequality in this government assistance program for rice farmers in rural Thailand. Conducting field research in the northern, southern, and central regions, the study found that rich rice farmers and landlords had more opportunity to access the government's assistance program than poor rice farmers and tenants. This has contributed to the state of inequality among rice farmers. The government should revise how the program is implemented and should limit this inequality among the beneficiaries.