Agriculture in transition[edit]
Agriculture was able to expand during the 1960s and 1970s as it had access to new land and unemployed labour.[1] Between 1962 and 1983, the agricultural sector grew by 4.1% on average a year and in 1980 it employed over 70% of the working population.[1] Yet, the state perceived developments in the agriculture sector as necessary for industrialisation and exports were taxed in order to keep domestic prices low and raise revenue for state investment in other areas of the economy.[1] As other sectors developed, labourers went in search of work in other sectors of the economy and agriculture was forced to become less labour-intensive and more industrialised.[1] Facilitated by state laws forcing banks to provide cheap credit to the agricultural sector and by providing its own credit through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC).[1] The state further invested in education, irrigation and rural roads.[1] The result was that agriculture continued to grow at 2.2% between 1983 and 2007, but also that agriculture now only provides half of rural jobs as farmers took advantage of the investment to diversify.[1]
As agriculture declined in relative financial importance in terms of income with rising industrialization and Americanization of Thailand from the 1960s, but it continued to provide the benefits of employment and self-sufficiency, rural social support, and cultural custody. Technical and economic globalisation forces have continued to change agriculture to a food industry and thereby exposed smallholder farmers to such an extent the traditional environmental and human values have declined markedly in all but the poorer areas.
Loading rice in Ban Sam Ruen
Agribusiness, both privately and government-owned, expanded from the 1960s and subsistence farmers were partly viewed as a past relic from which agribusiness could modernise. However, intensive integrated production systems of subsistence farming continued to offer efficiencies that were not financial, including social benefits which have now caused agriculture to be treated as both a social and financial sector in planning, with increased recognition of environmental and cultural values. 'Professional farmers' made up 19.5% of all farmers in 2004.[1]
Unique elements of Thai agriculture include irrigation technologies which spanned a millennium. It also had administrative structures which originated with agricultural water control. Thailand has global leadership in production and export of a number of agricultural commodities, and its agribusiness sector includes one of the world's largest multinational corporations. There still remains potential for further large increases in productivity from known technologies.
Thailand leads the world in producing and exporting rice, rubber, canned pineapple, and black tiger prawns. It leads the Asian region in exporting chicken meat export and several other commodities, and feeding more the four times its own population from. Thailand also seeks to expand its exports in livestock.
Thailand is unlikely to rapidly industrialise except in concert with the People's Republic of China, and will remain one of the world's major agricultural countries in social, environmental and economic terms for the foreseeable future.
Effect of climate change on Thailand agriculture[edit]
Thailand was one of the biggest agriculture reliance country. The country was able to stay competitive in the word due to its comparative advantage of utilizing it's great land scape and weather which provide great nourishment. The agriculture alone contributed roughly 1.26 trillion baht to its country GDP. However due to the severe change in the world climate and rising of temperature, Thailand has to struggled to survive this ordeal.
According to the department of disaster, Thailand's took a big hit from the flood during the end of 2011.Roughly 4 million rice farms was heavy affected, around 100,000 fish and shrimp ponds was lost and estimated lost of livestocks was 110,500 head. The damage was done to Thailand's agriculture was so massive so that Thailand is not the world leading agriculture.
Looking ahead into the trend of the climate change, It is projected that temperature will continue to rise at a steady rate in every region of Thailand range between 1.2-2 celsius. Annual rainfall are projected to decrease in the central area but increase around the Northern and Northeastern part. Volume of rainfall are projected to be around 1400 mn in the next 5 years. Farmers of Thailand are advised to be aware of the impact that climate change will have on their products. Heavy rain may damage the root of the cassava plant in the north region while decrease of rain might damage cane sugar and rice in the central region. Temperate and quality change of water might lead to a reduce in quality of livestocks due to stress of heat, affect on survival rate of the new born and immune system.
Thailand has made multiple adaptation to the matter. Since the rise of temperature started, many policies and innovate group were created to support Thailand's farmers such as National Strategy for climate change management and the Climate Change Alleviation Plan for Agriculture. These group and policies created “Climate Change Knowledge Information Center” which contain knowledge, information and research done on the matter, “Water Resource Management in Agriculture Sector” which projects water consumption and provide useful regulation on the quality of water in many region, and “Natural Disaster Management” provide a committee that predict incoming natural disaster and provide some comfort for unfortunate individual effected by natural disaster.[2][3][4][5]