Bangkok--14 Jan--BRIA Regional Secretariat
Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) under the German Food Partnership (GFP) and the Rice Department (RD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives will launch the ‘Kick off Consultation’ activity at Sunee Grand Hotel, Ubon Ratchathani Province, on January 20, 2015.
Dr. Apichart Pongsrihadulchai, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, will make an opening speech on ‘Government Rice Development Strategy and Policy’ while Mr. Chanpithya Shimphalee, Director General of the Rice Department, will deliver a key note speech on ‘Rice Production Development Plan.’
There will be two discussion sessions. The first forum will discuss the challenges and issues of the Thai rice value chain development covering such topics as the role of the rice community centers and farmers in contributing to the enhancement of the rice value chain, innovative technology to raise rice productivity, market linkages, rice by-product development, and access to investment funds for developing agribusiness models.
The second forum will discuss integrated cooperation among the public and private sectors and farmers in order to achieve rice sustainability and focus on the government role and structure, government budget management, implementation by state agencies, driving government policies through agricultural cooperatives, roles of rice millers, rice traders and related agricultural associations.
Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, BRIA Regional Project Director, will give a summary on ‘the Challenges, Operation, and Integrated Cooperation among the Public and Private Sectors and Farmers for the ‘Better Thai Rice Industry.’
The participants in this meeting are rice farmers from targeted community rice centers (CRC) comprising 8 CRCs from Ubon Ratchathani Province, 5 CRCs from Sisaket Province, 5 CRCs from Surin Province and 7 CRCs from Roi Et Province as well as officials from local government agencies and stakeholders in the local rice industry.
Mr. Chanpithya Shimphalee will also present certificates of appreciation to the Rice Department officials who facilitated a multi-stakeholder workshop held earlier to encourage farmers and relevant stakeholders in Ubon Ratchathani to raise problems they currently face and develop systematic ways to solve the problems and improve thier livelihoods.
BRIA is a collaboration between the public and private sectors. In Thailand, it is implemented by the German International Cooperation (GIZ), the Rice Department in cooperation with BASF and Bayer CropScience. Its four main activities are capacity building through training lead farmers, awareness raising for sustainable production, post-harvest efficiency, and market linkages and young agripreneurs.