Rice production in Thailand
Rice production in Thailand represents a significant portion of the Thai economy and labor force.
[10] Jasmine has a significantly lower crop yield than other types of rice, but normally fetches more than double the price of other cultivars on the global market.
[13] Agriculture constituted a large portion of the total production of Thailand and most Thais worked on farms.
[13] Due to the government's stance, urban merchants were unable to gain much control over the Thai rice industry.
[13] King Bhumibol played a large part in rice policy during his reign, greatly increasing production.
[21] Traditional rice cultivation is the second largest agricultural source of recycled greenhouse gas (GHG) after livestock.
Efforts to decrease agricultural methane (a practice which will help offset single use carbon from fossil fuel use) are being investigated.
[24] The Rice Department released five new varieties to celebrate the Coronation of Vajiralongkorn, ahead of the Royal Plowing Ceremony a few days later.
Oryza officinalis in Sukhothai Province was reported in 1990 to be highly resistant to tungro and several other pests, and already in use in several cultivars for that purpose.
The World Bank also provided financing for dams, canals, locks, ditches, and other infrastructure in the Greater Chao Phraya Project.
[33] The government demanded tax revenues, even during bad years, and this pushed many low-income farmers even closer to the margin.
[35] In June 2013, the international credit rating firm, Moody's, brought the scheme's results to the world's attention, reporting that the program would cost up to eight percent of Thailand's national budget and thus force Moody's to reassess the government's credit rating.
Costing over US$19 billion, the program left Thailand with millions of tonnes of rotting rice in warehouses and a government engulfed by allegations of corruption.
In its final year, government financing for the scheme dried up, leaving hundreds of thousands of farmers unpaid.
In early-May, prior to the military coup, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) found Yingluck at least partially responsible for corruption related to the scheme.
This, he said, would be achieved by increasing the number of large farms to 5,000 nationwide and by switching 500,000 rai from rice cultivation to other crops.
[39] The government allocated eight billion baht for the provision of soft loans to farmers in 35 provinces to switch to growing maize/corn on two million rai.
Villages that produced significant rice crops were also changing as farmers evolved from more subsistence practices to mostly wage labor.
[17] The decrease is attributed to the strong baht, floods and drought, and increased competition, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
The Japanese-made beverage is exported back to Thailand at 2,500 baht per litre, 170 times the price of the raw material.
In Thailand, small producers of liquor are barred from entering the business by the 2017 Excise Tax Act, which mandates a minimum production volume of 30,000 litres per day, effectively closing off opportunities for local craft distilleries.
[17] In 2008, drought in Southeast Asia attributed to El Niño drove benchmark Thai rice prices to US$1,000 per metric tonne.
In that year, lower Thai rice output, coupled with lower output from India and Vietnam, prompted India to ban exports, sending global prices skyrocketing and causing food riots in Haiti and panic measures by big importers such as the Philippines.
The military government approved 11.2 billion baht of measures in 2015 to help farmers, including encouraging them to plant crops that need less water.
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 15 rai (2.4 hectares (5.9 acres)).
[55]: 150–152 Some farmers in northern Thailand have reported success with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) cultivation methodology.
[56] GIZ, the German governmental aid agency, sponsors a pilot "sustainable rice platform" in partnership with the Thai government.
Its current (2020) program is called "Thai Rice NAMA" (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action), targeting a range of sustainability concerns such as the traditional practice of flooding paddies which contributes releases great quantities of methane to the atmosphere.
[25] Thailand has several times proposed the creation of a rice cartel with Vietnam, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.
Noppadon Pattama, the foreign minister of Thailand, wanted to call the forum the "Council on Rice Trade Cooperation" and was planning, as of May 2008, to invite China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Burma, and Vietnam to join.
