A display of the new strain of fragrant rice called Hom Nil. According to the National Centre for Genetic Engineerring and Biotechnology, the new strain contains 12.5% protein, compared with 6%for jasmine rice. Hom Nil is rich in calcium zinc and potassium.

The government is seeking to implement its promises and promote equality from the grass-roots level upward, through three ambitious projects: farm debt suspension for three years, village funds of one million baht per community nationwide and the One Tambon, One Product scheme.

The framework for the projects is in place, but in terms of public policy gains or substantial benefits to the public, few positive outcomes have emerged so far.

Customers of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC), who owe the bank less than 100,000 baht each, are eligible for assistance under the debt-suspension programme.

About 1.16 million farmers, with debts totalling 53.7 billion baht, have joined the programme, which also prevents them from applying for new loans.

But these farmers will receive higher interest rates on deposits up to 50,000 baht and be enrolled in job training to ensure that they will be able to repay their debts after three years.

Another 1.1 million farmers, owing 36.9 billion baht, preferred to stay out of the programme as they found the incentives unattractive.

The incentives include a three-percentage-point reduction in interest rates on loans, an additional percentage point on deposits up to 50,000 baht, emergency credit of 30,000 baht, a maximum 100,000-baht credit for future business, the chance to win education funds, life insurance and health-care, and the right to join the job rehabilitation plan.

Advocates of the government's approach may argue that more than two million farmers have already benefited from the scheme, but other analysts say the core issue is career rehabilitation, in which there has been little progress.

As of mid-November, only 6,260 farmers had received assistance out of the 40,733 whose rehabilitation plans and projects had been approved. This is only 0.5% of the total number of farmers who should receive assistance.

Altogether, 128,247 farmers from 4,348 tambons requested training under the programme.

Praphat Panyachartrak, a deputy agriculture minister, said inadequate farm databases and misunderstandings among state officials about the programme had contributed to the delay.

Inefficiencies at agriculture technology centres at the district level also hindered programme implementation, he said.

Several ostrich farms are located in the Northeast. Ostrich meat is considered high quality and is now sold locally. The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives says commercial ostrich farms are viable, particularly in the Northeast, although they require considerable up-front investment.

In November, after numerous demands for state assistance from members of agricultural co-operatives, Mr Praphat said the government would pay an interest subsidy of 3% for three years, to small co-operatives' clients who owed less than 100,000 baht, and had not yet participated in the BAAC's debt-suspension scheme.

The ministry estimates it will pay out 3.588 billion baht over three years to assist 1.08 million individuals who owe a total of 32.5 billion baht.

The 670,000 farmers who borrowed money as members of 3,399 groups owe 337 million baht.

The one-million-baht village fund appears to be further along the road toward its goal, though the results have been mixed to say the least. Almost all of the 74,881 villages have opened accounts for money to be transferred. The government began transferring the funds on July 25 and about 70% of the total had been disbursed to the village accounts as of early December.

Approximately 50% of the total funds transferred had already been borrowed by villagers, bringing smiles to the faces of government officials who argue the mechanism is working well.

But critics caution that more than half of the loans are being wasted and misused. Some villagers have been using the money to repay old debts to loan sharks rather than investing in starting their own businesses. In one notable case, an amphetamine dealer in Si Sa Ket admitted to having used money from the fund to stock up on supplies.

Villagers lacked proper understanding of the fund's goals, while supervisory officials were ill-trained, critics have said.

Some government agencies have been educating villagers to better understand the financial and loan approval system but it is an arduous task, and another contribution to the delays in this project.

Although unemployed undergraduates were recruited to handle the village funds, people have complained that the selection process was not fair and local MPs interfered by bringing their own people into the area.

The government wants to use the project to stimulate the local economy and expects it to be more effective than the Miyazawa Fund, put in place in 1999 by the previous administration.

The success or failure of the village funds has yet to be clearly determined, but analysts agree it has helped debt-suspended farmers, banned from receiving new loans from the BAAC, to seek new capital.

But it is clear that the one-tambon, one-product project has been implemented inefficiently, with widespread confusion, because all government agencies want to get credit for promoting each tambon to have its own product. However, not all tambons in the country have the potential to make a product. Marketing is an even bigger challenge.

Many villagers still believe that under the terms of the project, the government would allocate assistance funds to help them directly. But instead, the assistance will mainly be in the form of marketing, training and technology transfer.

The government is now reviewing all 6,340 projects registered under the project. A national oversight committee has been appointed, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Pongpol Adireksarn.

In terms of support to major farm products, the government has given priority to rice as the crop involves more than half of all the farmers in the country.

The Commerce Ministry has pledged that its paddy price intervention programme is different from those of previous governments. In fact, the theory and mechanisms are identical to earlier schemes that all had the same goal: a better paddy price for farmers, particularly during the harvesting period.

The only new variation is a programme specifically for the highest-grade fragrant paddy.

The government said it would buy all fragrant paddy at 6,500 baht a ton, far higher than the market price of 5,000 to 5,200 baht.

It also set an intervention price at 5,235 baht per ton for 5% white rice and 5,650 baht for sticky rice.

It plans to spend 53 billion baht to absorb 8.7 million tons of paddy, 4.7 million tons of fragrant rice, three million tons of white rice and one million tons of glutinous rice.

The project started on Nov 15 but only 81,732 tons of fragrant rice were pledged after 25 days of operations. Siripol Yodmuangcharoen, director-general of the Internal Trade Department said another 448,100 tons of white rice were pledged.

He claimed that the measures had helped reduce the gap between the guaranteed and market prices. The project will finish at the end of February.

As of Dec 11, a BAAC official said there had been no reports about the amount of pledged paddy. He said that normally farmers did not begin entering the pledging scheme until late December.

But Pramote Vanichanont, president of the Thai Rice Mills Association, argues that the government failed to understand the behaviour of farmers in the Northeast.

He said they were small farmers who normally sold only a few sacks of paddy after harvesting so they would not bother to enter the scheme and would sell paddy at market prices.

Exporters are unhappy with the government measure because it has pushed up the domestic rice price. To avoid huge losses in the future, they have boosted the volume of rice exports. The country will export a record 7.3 million tons of rice this year, for which Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik is claiming credit.

Mr Adisai has been fortunate due to a disaster in Vietnam that prompted its government to halt rice exports until February. The price of rice in Vietnam is now higher than in Thailand. Local mills are expecting the government to take this opportunity to clear up its stockpile of almost two million tons of rice, carried over from the previous government, by increasing exports.

Mr Pramote said it was disappointing, however, that Mr Adisai, who claimed he would be able to clear the whole stock in 2001, had sold the stock to local exporters.

He said that as a consequence, the policy would hurt paddy prices as exporters had no need to purchase rice milled from freshly harvested paddy in the market. No one dares to predict the outlook for rice next year and the market is now adjusting its expectations week by week.

But one farm product that has been in good shape for the whole year is tapioca, with the price of fresh cassava roots moving above one baht per kilogramme, due to the poor grain and maize output in the European Union, China and the United States.

The outlook for cassava planters is also brightening now that China has entered the World Trade Organisation.

Beijing has agreed to cut tariffs on imported tapioca pellets to 8% from 10%, on flour to 28% from 30%, and on starch to 16% from 20%.

China is becoming a major market for Thailand, importing 1.6 million tons of tapioca products during January to September 2001, compared with only 130,000 tons the year before.

Fresh pineapple is likely to fetch a good price in 2002 due to reduced output.

The government has attempted to restructure the pineapple industry in Thailand by setting up a tripartite corporation to oversee the exports of canned pineapple to ensure good prices.

But the policy has failed so far due to conflict among the related parties.

Although Thailand still faces anti-dumping penalties in the United States, Thai pineapple exporters are still likely to be able to compete in the industry.

Rubber still has poor prospects, despite the attempt by the world's three leading producers _ Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia _ to stimulate the world price by stockpiling and cutting production.

Thai rubber planters are suffering as prices plummet, with rubber sheet quoted at only 15 baht a kilogramme and latex at 13 baht in December.

But on a brighter note, before the end of this year there was the successful launch of a new round of world trade negotiations that included the commitment to move toward greater liberalisation of farm products by phasing out all forms of subsidies.