MINISTER of Agriculture Chan Sarun on Sunday upbraided staff members for spending too much time behind their desks, encouraging them to provide more hands-on assistance to farmers throughout the country.

“You must change your habit from working at the office to working harder to increase rice production with the farmers in the rural areas, and to help to resolve all of their concerns,” Chun Sarun said as he opened the ministry’s annual conference, which also marked the release of a report detailing production totals for 2009 and initiatives for 2010 and 2011.

Chan Sarun said that he had become increasingly concerned about media reports in which farmers expressed frustration at the lack of agriculture experts and officials available to assist them in combating insects or other factors that damage their crops.

“We must double-check about this problem,” he said, adding that officials in all provinces should expand their presence in remote areas in particular.