Agriculture and Livelihoods in the Flood-prone Ecosystem in Thailand

Abstract

The study aimed to assess recent changes in agriculture and livelihoods of farmers in the flood-prone ecosystem of Thailand. One thousand two hundred and sixty-six households were randomly interviewed by using a structured questionnaire in twenty provinces under the ecosystem during 2000/2001. The findings revealed that Thailand had a favorable endowment of land with an average size of holding of 4.73 ha. The size of holding varied greatly across regions. Tenancy cultivation has been widespread (41% of the land) because of the high incidence of rural-urban migration. Most of the household heads had only primary level education. High diversity of rice varieties was found due to widespread cultivation of local varieties in the rainfed lands. Irrigation infrastructure has expanded greatly in the flood-prone ecosystem contributing to intensification of cropping. But the monocrop of flood-prone rice was still dominant. The double cropping of rice was found to vary from 5 to 28 percent in shallow flooded areas, and from 10 to 30 percent in deepflooded areas depending on the regions. The incidence of double cropping of modern varieties was still low. The average rice yield increased from 2.20 to 2.78 t/ha. The costs of rice cultivation was mainly on account of material inputs particularly, chemical fertilizers and machine rental charge. An average household earned about Baht 128,000, mostly from non-farm activities. Agriculture accounted for only 38 percent of the household income, and rice cultivation only 22 percent. The rural household income was highly unequally distributed. Rice cultivation accounted for a small fraction of income inequality. The level of income and rice's share of household income varied greatly across regions, depending mostly on the size of landholding and the opportunity of non-farm employment. A system approach must be taken in designing research strategy for the flood-prone ecosystem. Development of modern varieties with high yields, shorter maturity period, tolerance to submergence, and improved grain quality could lead to further intensification of rice farming. In addition, wider adoption of two modern varieties within the year, and reduction in the instability in yield from climatic stresses could make significant impact of the livelihoods of the flood-prone rice farmers than the improvement of the traditional deepwater rice plant.