Thailand Plans $4.7 Billion Aid for Farmers Hit by Covid, Floods

  • Cash handouts will target growers of rice, rubber and palm
  • Money for farmers coming amid speculation of early election

Photographer: Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images

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Thailand plans to dole out nearly $5 billion in cash to millions of farmers reeling from the impacts of Covid-19, floods, droughts and poor crop prices.

The Cabinet will consider a program to allot 155 billion baht ($4.7 billion) to growers of rice, rubber, oil palm and other crops at a meeting next Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said in a statement on Facebook. The government will transfer the cash into the accounts of eligible farmers through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, he said.