Agriculture
Of the country’s total area of 51.36 million hectares, 41% or more than 21 m ha are agricultural areas. Agricultural sector contributed 10% of the GDP. Crop production is the most important sub-sector accounting for 62% of the total agricultural production followed by fisheries, livestock and simple agro-processing which accounted for 13%, 10% and 11% respectively.
Despite of small proportion in GDP, agriculture sector remains of great importance to the Thai Economy since majority of people, about, 54% are engaged in the agricultural sector and still earn their living from agricultural activities. During the financial crisis agricultural sector has relieved the national economic situation by absorbing much of many unemployed labors.
Moreover, agricultural sector generated substantial foreign exchange earning. Agricultural exports became the driving force for the economy. Around 23% of the Thailand’s export (or about US $16 billion) are agricultural products. The main commodities for export are shrimp, natural rubber, canned pineapple, canned tuna, and chicken, in addition to rice and sugar.
Figure 5 showed the estimated supply and consumption of the four major commodities such as rice, sugar, soybean and corn. In crop year 2001/2002, around 17.6 million tons of rice has been produced which are 3.27% increase over 2000/2001. Domestic consumption is 9.4 million tons or 57.23% of total production. The domestic use specifically for rice is not even half of the production supply, and about 1/3 of the supply is for exportation to other countries.
Fig.5
Estimated commodities supply and utilization by year (million metric
tons)
Source: Office
of Agricultural Economics, MOAC
Corn production in crop year 2001/2002, total output is 4.47 million tons, which increased slightly from the previous year. Domestic demand is 4.3 million tons. Soybean, in crop year 2001/2002, the country had produced 0.31 million tons increased at a rate of 6.48% over the previous year. While the domestic demand for soybean is 1.70 million tons, it has to import additional 1.40 million tons. Sugar: In crop year 2001/2002, the estimated production is 6.18 million tons, which increases 4.82% over the previous year. The demand for consumption is almost the same as last year about 1.82 million tons. It is expected that the export of sugar is around 4.36 million tons.
Aside from soybean, Thailand has been importing some agricultural products to meet domestic demand such as soybean cake, cotton, and milk products. However, since the country is the major producer and exporter of agricultural and food products, the surplus has been increasing continuously from US$4.8 billion in 1993 to US$ 8.6 billion in 2002.
Despite being a net food exporting country, Thailand still face malnutrition problem in some specific areas due to other factors such as poverty, inefficient food distribution system, among others.
