the Symposium on Wheats for More Tropical Environments - cimmyt

316Wheat in Chiang Rai, Thailand:A Preliminary Look at Comparative AdvantageL.W. Harrington, Economics Program, CIMMYT, and S. Sat-thaporn,Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Bangkok, ThailandAbstractA preliminary assessment is made of<strong>the</strong> comparative advantage ofwheatversus alternativesfor two production domains in <strong>the</strong> Chiang Rai province ofThailand, <strong>the</strong> rainfed uplands and <strong>the</strong> bunded lowlands without dry-seasonwater. The assessment is preliminary, because wheat technology is not yet wellspecified. Using technology and cost assumptions thatfavor wheat, resultsindicate that wheat does not have a comparative advantage on rainfed uplands;for saving or earningforeign exchange, more resources are usedfor wheatproduction thanfor that ofmaize or mungbean. However, wheat may have acomparative advantage in certain lowland areas, if agronomic problems andcropping-systems conflicts can be resolved.Thailand. like many o<strong>the</strong>r developing.countries in more tropical environments.is importing and consuming large andincreasing quantities of wheat.Currently. wheat imports total about200.000 tons per year. with a currentvalue of about USS 40 million: <strong>the</strong>y aresaid to be increasing on <strong>the</strong> order of10% per year (3). As a consequence.Thai researchers. in cooperation withCIMMYT, have undertaken <strong>the</strong> task ofdeveloping technology for local wheatproduction. The purpose of this paper isto add an economic dimension to <strong>the</strong>irwork by offering a preliminaryassessment of <strong>the</strong> comparativeadvantage of wheat for one province innor<strong>the</strong>rn Thailand. It is restricted to <strong>the</strong>production of wheat for importsubstitution: production for homeconsumption is not addressed.Wheat Production DomainsAny study of comparative advantage isconducted for specified production andconsumption locations. This study setsconsumption and production locations atBangkok and Chiang Rat province.respectively. Chiang Rat was chosenbecause of its relatively favorableagroclimatic and economiccircumstances. including such factors asa relatively long cool season. relativelyabundant dry-season rainfall (1) andrelatively large areas of idle land in <strong>the</strong>cool. dry season. This province is farfrom homogeneous and. as part of <strong>the</strong>study. several wheat-productiondomains were identified. Each of <strong>the</strong>m isreasonably homogeneous with respect topossibilities for wheat production: <strong>the</strong>yinclude rainfed uplands. lowlands withinadequate dry-season water and o<strong>the</strong>rdomains.Ralnfed uplandsThis domain is comprised of croplandbelow 600 meters altitude that is notbunded or irrigated. Maize. <strong>the</strong> majorrainy-season crop. is harvested by earlyto mid-September. leaVing more than amonth before <strong>the</strong> wheat-planting season.In much of this domain. wheat can begrown after maize, but would competewith o<strong>the</strong>r second crops (mungbean.peanuts and a second maize crop) forland and o<strong>the</strong>r resources. This domain ischaracterized by relatively light-texturedsoils and covers some 56.000 hectares.approximately 17% of Chiang Ratcropland.