Crop Diversification in the Asia-Pacific region - United Nations in ...

y promoting diversified crops instead of a single crop; which took into account incomedistribution of farmers and natural resources conservation, including environmental issues.Therefore, the main concept implied in farm diversification (crops, livestock andfisheries) and crop diversification programmes should be placed in a proper perspective inorder to- respond to the objectives and goals of the farmers such as consumption, householdutilities, income etc;- increase farm income and provide a continuous income for farm families;- reduce farmers’ risk and encourage them to make their own farm plans;- promote various farm enterprises to avoid any risk and uncertainties from naturaldisasters and marketing setbacks;- encourage the farmers to recycle farm wastes and integrate farm activities such ascrops, livestock and fisheries;- minimize the use of external inputs; and- conserve the natural resources and balance the agro-ecosystems at the farm level.2. AGRICULTURE SITUATION IN THAILANDAbout 41.5 percent (21.28 million hectares) of the total area are farm holdings, withsome 17.5 percent of this presently under irrigation. This land, both irrigated and nonirrigated,is used by some 5.2 million farm families to produce agricultural goods fordomestic consumption and export.Among the large number of crops of economic significance, rice is the mostimportant which is widely grown in all regions and covers about half of the country’scultivated area. Other major field crops are cassava, corn, sugar cane, oil crops and perennialtrees such as para rubber, fruit trees cover the rest of the area. The utilization of farm land isas follows: 51 percent for paddy, 24 percent under field crops, 17 percent under fruit treesand other tree crops and others occupy 8 percent. The major planted areas of selected cropsare rice, maize, cassava and rubber. The planted area, yield, production and value ofeconomic crops in 1997/1998 are shown in Table 1.Table 1. Planted Area, Yield, Production and Value of Economic CropsCrops Area(1,000 ha.)Yield(ton/ha.)Production(1,000 tonnes)Value(Million of US$)Major rice 9,113.28 2.14 18,789 3,275.39Second rice 1,156.96 4.23 4,791 825.37Maize 1,396.64 3.20 3,832 421.52Cassava 1,071.04 14.93 15,591 491.12Sugar cane 943.52 49.68 46,873 594.12Para Rubber 1,831.04 1.42 2,169 1,262.90The National Economic and Social Development Plan also places emphasis on thecommercialization of agriculture, moving away from subsistence farming towards intensivemonocrop production for export. However, the proportion of the agricultural gross domesticproduct (GDP) declined to 25 percent in the 3 rd plan and less than 15 percent in the 7 th plan,131