Sericulture Policy of the Royal Thai Government : An Analysis of its Continuity and the Government's Concentration

Abstract

This paper analyses the path of sericulture policy of the Royal Thai Government since the beginning of its promotion in 1901 to present. The purpose of the study is to examine the continuity of the policy, the extent of concentration of the government to promote sericulture production in Thailand and the obstacles of the policy. The result of the study indicates that the sericulture promotion policy has not consistently been conducted. During 1901-1905, 1936-1938, and 1955-1981 the government gave priority to sericulture development. But since 1982 onwards it reduced sericulture from cash crop status to normal crop. Factors that reflect the failures of the government policy are: 1) the government's misconduct in supporting silk factories and just around 3 percent of bivoltine silkworm-rearing farmers through the sericulture product import control measure instead of supporting farmers who raise Thai variety silkworms 2) the mismatch over job description and weak linkage between the state administrators overseeing sericulture especially Department of Agriculture and Department of Agricultural Extension and 3) the 40 percent reduction of sericulture farmers in less than 2 decades.