04 INNOVATIVE AGRICULTURE
Thai agriculture becoming smart and sustainable Thomas Hundt
Successful agriculture accepts innovations The tropical climate and fertile soil in Thailand enable the cultivation of high-yielding crops. Experts certify that the country has made use of this potential over the recent decades and has built a flourishing agricultural economy and an extremely successful food industry that can do more than just supply the population – it even exports large quantities of products. Thailand is the world’s sixth-largest rice producer, fourth in sugar cane farming, third behind Indonesia and Malaysia among palm oil producers, third in cassava and among the five largest countries that cultivate pineapples and mangoes. Thailand ranks at the top when it comes to the harvest of natural rubber. About 46 per cent of the countr y’s land area is used for agriculture. In Germany the proportion is around 50 per cent. However, the agricultural areas are shrinking in Thailand because industrial parks, new settlements and
UPDATE 2/2021
traffic routes are taking up more and more land. Farmers can only expand their land at the expense of nature. If they want to increase their income, they will have to become more productive and innovative.
Depar tment. Provinces, municipalities and agricultural associations are also carrying out their own water projects.
Exhausted resources
Total domestic consumption of households is currently shrinking because disposable incomes are falling and income from international tourism has plunged. Gastronomy and retail businesses are selling less food during the current crisis.
Agriculture consumes about one-third of the total amount of Thailand’s water resources. According to the most recent survey, around 4.8 million hectares of agricultural land were irrigated in 2014. Climate change is having a negative impact through increasingly severe floods and longer periods of drought. In 2019 and 2020, for example, water shor tages resulted in lower yields of important crops such as rice and sugar cane. Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture has therefore increased its budget for water projects significantly. The increase is allocated to the construction of additional reservoirs, pipelines and canals for irrigation and drainage as well as repairs of the existing systems. The projects are implemented by the Royal Irrigation
Covid-19 affects the food industry
Also small-scale farmers quickly get into financial difficulties when demand and agricultural prices fall. However, as part of Covid-19 relief measures, they are receiving direct payments and price subsidies, and can postpone loan payments or take out new low-cost loans. Agriculture and food industry are facing additionally labour shortage. At the end of 2020, the Ministry of Labour counted 170,806 foreign workers in agriculture and forestry as well as 200,769 guest workers who are
