Agriculture in Thailand
[7] Other agricultural commodities produced in significant amounts include fish and fishery products, tapioca, rubber, grain, and sugar.
After the Neolithic Revolution, the societal structure in the region transitioned from hunting and gathering to agro-cities, eventually leading to state-religious empires.
Since around 1000 CE, the cultivation of Tai wet glutinous rice has been a pivotal aspect of the local administrative structures, reflecting the pragmatic nature of a society that consistently produced a surplus suitable for trade.
These improvements have been attributed to a combination of strong state involvement in investment in infrastructure, education, and access to credit, as well as successful private initiatives in the agribusiness sector.
[8] As agriculture declined in relative financial importance in terms of income, with rising industrialization and Westernisation of Thailand from the 1960s, it continued to provide the benefits of employment and self-sufficiency, rural social support, and cultural custody.
Technical and economic globalisation have continued to change agriculture to a food industry which exposed smallholders to such an extent that environmental and human values have declined markedly in all but the poorer areas.
[32] In addition to releasing CO2, sugarcane burning emits acidic fine particles, which have an adverse impact on air quality and human health.
[37] The five provinces with the largest tapioca plantations are Nakhon Ratchasima, which alone produces 25 percent of Thailand's total production,[38] Kamphaeng Phet, Chaiyaphum, Sa Kaeo, and Chachoengsao.
[5] Then, as prices began to rebound, the southern provinces of Thailand, where two-thirds of the Thai rubber plantations are located, were hit by torrential rains and flooding at the peak of the rubber-tapping season.
Largely due to the flooding, prices for unsmoked USS3 rubber sheets[50] in Nakhon Si Thammarat have increased steadily and reached 84.32 baht (US$2.38) per kilogram in January 2017 and will likely go higher.
More than 330,000 rai of rubber trees in Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani, and Trang Provinces have been damaged by Pestalotiopsis leaf fall disease since it was detected in September 2019.
[5] In 2019, Deputy Agriculture Minister Thamanat Prompow proposed spending 18 billion baht to purchase 30 million latex foam pillows to prop up rubber prices.
The chief of Thai Hua Rubber PLC, in favour of the idea, suggested that the pillows could be sold at low prices or given free to foreign tourists.
[60] The Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture estimates that in 2013, 71,630 small landholders raised mulberry silkworms on 39,570 rai, producing 287,771 kg of silk cocoons.
Eri silk, on the other hand, produces only a fraction of these quantities, grown by a small network of 600 families scattered throughout 28 provinces in north, northeast, and central Thailand.
[62] Shaobing Peng of Huazhong Agriculture University in China believes climate change is now affecting the seasonal weather in Thailand.
Temperature and quality changes of water might lead to a reduction in the viability of livestock due to heat stress, survival rates of newborn animals, and immune system impacts.
[3] Professor Witsanu Attavanich of Kasetsart University projects that the negative aggregate financial impact of climate change on Thailand's agriculture during the period 2040–2049 will range from US$24–94 billion.
[66] According to the Thai government's The Eleventh National Economic and Social Development Plan (2012–2016), Thailand is number one in the world in the application of chemicals in agriculture.
It is sold under various trade names: Crisquat, Cyclone, Dextrone, Gramoxone Extra, Herbaxone, Ortho Weed and Spot Killer, and Sweep.
[69] In May 2018 the National Hazardous Substance Committee (NHSC) voted 18–6 in favor of allowing the continued use of the three toxic chemicals, albeit with tighter controls.
It is not permitted in watershed areas and other sensitive environment zones, and farmers must submit proof of use including the type of crops and the size of their farms when purchasing glyphosate.
Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who chairs the NHSC, said the committee reached its decision after reviewing information provided by the Department of Agriculture and the Ministry of Public Health.
[76][77] The next day, 28 November, public health authorities insisted that the NHSC neither lifted nor eased a ban on the three toxic farm chemicals, as Industry Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit had claimed.
Nevertheless, Thailand's consumption of organic food remains low, with retail sales of just US$0.24 per capita in 2014, compared with US$10 in Japan and US$294 in Switzerland, the world leader.
Surin organic rice farmers receive fifteen baht (US$0.43) per kilogram of paddy, compared with the market price of nine baht/kilo for non-organic jasmine.
As the organic rice farmers do not pay for chemical inputs, each can earn about 80,000 baht (US$2,285) per crop, on an average-sized farm of fifteen rai (2.4 ha; 5.9 acres).
Chemical companies demanded they be added to the Thai Dangerous Substances Act so they can continue to be used, including on exported mangoes to developed countries which have banned their use.
[82] In 2014, Khon Kaen University concluded that Thailand should ban 155 types of pesticides, with 14 listed as urgent: Carbofuran, Methyl Bromide, Dichlorvos, Lambda-cyhalothrin, Methidathion-methyl, Omethoate, Zeta Cypermethrin, Endosulfan sulfate, Aldicarb, Azinphos-methyl, Chlorpyrifos-ethyl, Methoxychlor, and Paraquat.
The government allocated eight billion baht for the provision of soft loans to farmers in 35 provinces to switch to growing maize on two million rai.
