Thailand Agriculture

Although Thailand in recent years has focused on creating a more forward-thinking, modern economy, ranking second only to Singapore in financial clout within the ASEAN block, the country’s agricultural sector still remains a crucial cog in the engine driving the country forward. It continues to capitalise on its long-standing farming tradition...

Endowed with fertile soil, advantageous geography and historically favourable weather cycles, Thailand possesses many of the attributes necessary to fashion itself into one of the premier agricultural powerhouses not just in Asia, but throughout the world. Since before the creation of the modern kingdom of Thailand, farmers have been...

Thailand has long been a pre-eminent producer and exporter of rice, and the crop has become so important that it has surpassed its role as a lucrative export product and domestic food staple to become an influential social and political component.

The naturally fertile land centred around Thailand’s Chao Phraya river basin, combined with increasingly well-developed infrastructure, serves as a strong foundation for what is a robust agricultural base. These advantages have propelled both small-scale farmers and larger agriculture companies from Thailand into the forefront of global agri-...

In spite of all the technological gains agriculture has made over the years, crop output from season to season still ultimately depends upon the forces of nature. The often dramatic production fluctuations witnessed every year around the globe are most often the result of favourable or inclement weather patterns rather than any man-made or...

Few issues are more controversial in Thai agriculture these days than the question of government schemes to support – or not support – prices. Indeed, this issue sent rubber farmers onto the streets in the autumn of 2013 to demand more government support, while in that year and 2014, other street protestors demanded less government aid when it...