Examine individual changes

'[[Image:Agriculture in thailand 1.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Agriculture in the rural areas of [[Bangkok]].]] Thai agriculture is highly competitive, diversified and specialised and its exports are very successful internationally. [[Rice]] is the country's most important [[crop]]; Thailand is a major [[export]]er in the world rice market. Other agricultural commodities produced in significant amounts include [[fish]] and fishery products, [[tapioca]], [[rubber]], [[cereal|grain]], and [[sugar]]. Exports of [[industry|industrially]] [[processed food]]s such as canned [[tuna]], [[pineapple]]s, and frozen [[shrimp]] are on the rise. == History == The '''[[agriculture]] of [[Thailand]]''' may be traced through historical, scientific, and social aspects which produced modern Thailand's unique approach to agriculture. Following the [[Neolithic Revolution]], society in the area evolved from [[hunting and gathering]], through phases of ''agro-cities'', and into [[state religion|state-religious]] [[empire]]s. Immigration of the [[Tai peoples|Tai]] produced a distinct approach to sustainable agriculture compared with most other agricultural practices in the world. From about 1000, the Tai wet [[glutinous rice]] culture determined [[Local government|administrative]] [[hierarchy|structures]] in a [[pragmatism|pragmatic]] society that regularly produced a salable surplus. Continuing today, these systems consolidate the importance of rice agriculture to [[national security]] and economic well being. [[China|Chinese]] and [[Europe]]an influence later benefited agribusiness and initiated the demand that would expand agriculture through population increase until accessible land was expended. Recent developments in agriculture have meant that since the 1960s, [[unemployment]] has fallen from over 60% to under 10% in the early 2000s.<ref name=ODI1>Henri Leturque and Steve Wiggins 2010. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=5108&title=thailands-progress-agriculture-transition-sustained-productivity-growth Thailand's progress in agriculture: Transition and sustained productivity growth]. London: [[Overseas Development Institute]]</ref> In the same period: food prices halved, hunger decreased (from 2.55 million households in 1988 to 418,000 in 2007) and child [[malnutrition]] have greatly reduced (from 17% in 1987 to 7% in 2006).<ref name=ODI1/> This has been achieved (a) through a mixture of a strong and positive state role in ensuring investment in [[infrastructure]], [[education]] and access to credit and (b) successful private initiatives in the [[agribusiness]] sector.<ref name=ODI1/> This has supported Thailand's transition to a industrialised economy.<ref name=ODI1/> ==Agriculture in transition== Agriculture was able to expand during the 1960s and 1970s as it had access to new land and unemployed labour.<ref name=ODI1/> 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.<ref name=ODI1/> 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.<ref name=ODI1/> 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.<ref name=ODI1/> 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).<ref name=ODI1/> The state further invested in education, irrigation and rural roads.<ref name=ODI1/> 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.<ref name=ODI1/> 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 [[globalization|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. [[Image:09 Loading Rice in Ban Sam Ruen.JPG|thumb|left|300px|Loading rice in Ban Sam Ruen]] [[Agribusiness]], both privately and government-owned, expanded from the 1960s and [[subsistence farming|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 [[environmentalism|environmental]] and cultural values. 'Professional farmers' made up 19.5% of all farmers in 2004.<ref name=ODI1/> Unique elements of Thai agriculture include [[irrigation]] [[technology|technologies]] which spanned a millennium. It also had i suck cockadministrative structures which originated with [[Irrigation management|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 corporation]]s. There still remains potential for further large increases in productivity from known technologies. Thailand leads the world in producing and exporting rice, [[rubber]], [[canned food|canned pineapple]], and black [[tiger prawn]]s. It leads the [[Asia]]n 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. ==See also== * [[Rice production in Thailand]] * [[Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (Thailand)]] ==References== {{Reflist}} {{commons category|Agriculture in Thailand}} *[[Lindsay Falvey]], (2000). ''Thai Agriculture, Golden Cradle of Millennia'', [[Kasetsart University]] Press. ISBN 974-553-816-7. *: <small>Also available in the [[Thai language]] as ''karn kaset thai'', and full text of both languages are available at [http://www.iid.org/books_thai.php]</small> {{Asia topic|Agriculture in}} [[Category:Agriculture in Thailand| ]] [[ms:Pertanian di Thailand]] [[th:เกษตรกรรมในประเทศไทย]]'