Farmers from Thailand's 26 rice- producing provinces filed a complaint with the prime minister on Monday, seeking a review of the government's decision to slash the rice pledging price which would hurt their income.

Prime Minister's Office Minister Varathep Rattanakorn, who promised to deliver the complaint to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, said the government would listen to farmers' opinions as well as eliminate corruption in running the rice program.

Farmers from the central and lower northern provinces insisted that the pledging price of paddy should be retained at 15,000 baht (about 500 U.S. dollars) per tonne until the end of the current season in late October.

They planned to rally in front of the Government House on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the cabinet decided to reduce the rice- pledging price to 12,000 baht (about 400 U.S. dollars) per tonne, effective as of June 30. It also set the ceiling for rice purchases at 500,000 baht from each farming household.

The adjustment to the populist rice-pledging scheme, which was designed to benefit some 8 million rice-growers across the country by the ruling Pheu Thai Party, has been made to better reflect the global market.

Thailand has reportedly lost over 136 billion baht (some 4.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2011-2012 crop year for implementing the program. Moody's has warned of possible downgrade to the country' s ratings. Endi

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