• Investment in agricultural di-
• Reorientation from state enterpris-
1960–
Integrating
Food
and
Nutrition
Security
in
a Middle-Income,
Globalized,
versification
and
moderniza-
es toward private
(and foreign) in-
1973
Food-Exporting
Nation:
Thailand’s
Food
Policy
Challenge
tion
vestment to develop the economy
• Diversification to crops for in-
dustrial inputs, e.g. sugar cane
and jute • Beginning of mass influx of US Aid
and military spending as well as
business investment
• Land devoted to crops other
than rice rose from 18% to 32%
in 1971 • Establishment of NESDB and be-
ginning of 5-year development
plans
• Land ownership concentration
but remaining dominance of
small holder agriculture
• Agricultural development sub-
ordinated to industrial devel-
opment
1974–
1990
• Rural economic development
planning prioritized—aimed at
poverty reduction and commu-
nity health
• Aimed to raise rural incomes
through commercial agricul-
ture
• Private agribusiness grows en-
couraged by government in-
vestment incentives
• Beginning of value added agri-
food production for export
• End of land frontier—agricul-
tural growth could no longer
depend on clearing and plant-
ing more land
• Community development period
• Rapid increase in urban economy,
manufacturing, and industry lead
to increasing urban/rural inequali-
ty and rural–urban migration
• Sustained decreases in overall pov-
erty but increases in inequality
• Manufacturing and trade overtake
agriculture for contribution to
GDP in 1980
• Farm families cash incomes in-
crease and subsistence agriculture
decreases.
• Introduction of Green Revolu-
tion crops
1990
• Expansion of contract farming,
particularly for poultry and ex-
port vegetables
• Export share of processed ag-
ricultural commodities rapidly
increased while the share of rice
exports decreased
• Dominance of capitalist free mar-
ket ideology in Thailand
• Reductions in state intervention
in economy including agricultural
sector
• Decreases in government in-
vestment in agriculture re-
placed by agri-business invest-
ment
2000
• Kitchen to the World
• Free Trade Agreements
11
• Establishment of National Food
• Abundant cheap processed food
• Rice mortgage schemes to help
farmer incomes