Abstract
The income support direct payment program, which was introduced in FY 2010, mitigates the reduction of rice farmers’ income caused by the recent downward trending price of rice. However, rice farmers participating in the program need to give up a part of their income from the rice production adjustment. Therefore, the net benefit of the participation in the program has been defined as the difference between the subsidy and the opportunity cost of the rice production adjustment. The objective of this study is to estimate the net benefit by size class of rice acreage for FYs 2010 and 2011. The results show that the program is more profitable for the middle-size class (3.0–5.0 ha) than for the largest class (5.0 ha and over) farms, implying that the program deters expansion of rice farm size.
