Thammasat University students interested in management science, agricultural economics, economic development, environmental studies, business, and related subjects may find it useful to read White Gold: The Commercialisation of Rice Farming in the Lower Mekong Basin by Rob Cramb.
It is an Open Access book available for free download at this link.
The TU Library collections includes many other books about different aspects of rice farming in the Kingdom and around the world.
Professor Rob Cramb is Honorary Professor at the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia.
This book helps readers understand the processes involved in changing small rice farms in the Lower Mekong Basin from a low-yielding subsistence activity to one producing surpluses needed for national self-sufficiency and high-value export industries.
As TU students know, the Lower Mekong Basin drops 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) before it enters the lower basin where the borders of Thailand, Laos, China, and Myanmar join in the Golden Triangle. Downstream from the Golden Triangle, the river flows for 2,600 more kilometers (1,600 miles) through Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia before entering the South China Sea through a complex delta system in Vietnam.
For centuries, farmers in the Basin have considered rice as white gold.
Thailand has long been ranked as the sixth largest producer of rice after China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam according to 2019 statistics of the The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
As Professor Cramb points, all of these other countries “have much larger populations” than Thailand.
The importance of rice in Thailand’s agricultural economy shows that the Kingdom has a natural environment suitable for rice production through Thai agriculture, originating in migrations of rice-growing farmers from southern China.
He adds: “Thai rice is renowned for its quality, including conventional white rice and Thai fragrant or jasmine rice (kao hom mali or kao dok mali), derived from the local variety, KDML105.”
Whereas the Central Region remains the largest producer of white rice for the domestic and export markets, jasmine rice predominates in the Northeast Region to which it is more suited.
As Professor Cramb notes,
“Rice farming in Northeast Thailand has changed significantly in the past few decades, becoming more commercialised and mechanised.”
In November, the Bangkok Post reported on a new support scheme for rice farmers:
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) will pay financial aid to farmers under the income guarantee scheme starting on Tuesday.
Somkiat Kimawaha, the BAAC’s senior executive vice-president, said on Saturday the cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal by the Commerce Ministry to allow the BAAC to carry out the rice farmers’ income guarantee programme for the 2021/2022 harvest year, worth 13.2 billion baht.
The project is aimed at providing rice farmers with a cushion against risks of operating at a loss, he said.
The project will also help reduce the onus on the government to prop up falling crop prices caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, economic slump and flooding, and also help keep the market mechanism operating normally, Mr Somkiat said.
Under the project, financial aid will be offered to farmers who grow five varieties of rice.
Those who grow Hom Mali paddy rice will receive 15,000 baht per tonne, but capped at no more than 14 tonnes per household, Mr Somkiat said.
Farmers who grow Hom Mali rice outside the 20 provinces in the Northeast and three provinces in the North will receive 14,000 baht per tonne, limited to 16 tonnes per household, while farmers who grow white paddy rice will get 10,000 baht per tonnes, capped at 30 tonnes, he said.
Those who grow Pathum Thani paddy rice will receive 11,000 baht per tonne, on up to 25 tonnes per household, and farmers who grow glutinous paddy rice will get 12,000 baht per tonne, limited to no more than 16 tonnes per household.
“Payment of the financial aid will start on Tuesday, with 492,571 farming households to receive 10.92 billion baht,” Mr Somkiat said.
Farmers who wish to receive the aid must register as rice farmers for the 2021/2022 harvest year with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry and tell the ministry the date of their expected harvests, he said.
The Department of Agricultural Extension will forward the information to the BAAC so the bank will pay the money directly into farmers’ bank accounts. Farmers can check the payments via the BAAC’s A-Mobile app, Mr Somkiat said.
In March, the Global Agricultural Information Network noted,
Thailand’s rice crop is anticipated to rebound as the country’s economy bounces back from COVID-19 challenges, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Thailand’s rice production is expected to bounce back in the 2021-22 marketing year with a total of 21 million tonnes after being challenged with drought over the past two years. The USDA expects rice consumption to increase 2% to 3% in 2021 and 2022 in line with the expected recovery in the hotel and restaurant sectors from the COVID-1p outbreak in 2020.
Based on global economic recovery from COVID-19 and larger exportable supplies, Thailand’s rice exports in 2022 are forecast to increase 29% to nine million tonnes.
And in June, the Chiang Rai Times announced:
Thailand to regain world’s biggest rice exporter position
Meanwhile, Thailand is mired in triple trouble gravely affecting its rice exports: decreased production because of droughts, exports at 23-year lows due to the high baht, and higher shipping charges.
Amid emerging expectations that rice exports from the Kingdom, once the world’s biggest exporter, will further drop this year, the government is stepping up efforts to regain that position by lowering export surcharges and improving rice breeds.
At a cabinet meeting in April, the government affirmed a plan to lower surcharges it collects from exporters for rice exports to the European Union and Britain from 2,500 baht ($80.51) per ton to 1,200 to 1,500 baht.
The government decided to prop up rice exports after they shrank 25% in 2020 from the previous year to 5.7 million tons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The volume of exports was the lowest since 1997, when Thai society was thrown into confusion because of the Asian financial crisis.
Thailand thus fell to being the third-largest rice exporter in 2020, surpassed by Vietnam, which exported 6.16 million tons.
Weakened price competitiveness is one reason for the fall in Thailand’s position as a rice exporter. Exports of Thai rice were priced at $542 per ton in February, losing to those of Indian and Vietnamese rice, which were quoted at $393 and $520, respectively.
Rice production in Thailand contracted because of droughts hitting its rice-producing region in 2019 and 2020. The appreciation of the baht and steep rises in freight charges for container vessels dealt additional blows to rice exports.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)