Agricultural, Fishery and Forestry Statistics
Agriculture statistics
were obtained from the Office of Agricultural Economics and the
Department of Livestock Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the National
Statistical Office.
As known, Thailand is an agricultural country and agriculture is the main subsistence
occupation of the majority of Thai people and the agricultural product is the most important
exporting goods. For such reasons, the Thai government has planned a program to develope all
types of agricultural activities in order to increase and improve both quantity and quality of
agricultural products for direct consumption, industrial and exporting purposes.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has proposed the agricultural development
plan. Restructure agricultural production under the Sustainable Agricultural Development Scheme in
directions such as natural farming, organic farming, integrated farming, agro-forestry and water
sources under the new theory. This is intended to serve farmer in upgrading of infrastructure to
promote higher productivity and better quality of life and standard living. Also, it is for the
conservation of sustainable environment.
In crop year 2002/03, the important economic plants are rice, maize, pineapple, soy beans,
kenaf, groundnuts and sorghum.
Agriculture statistics of agricultural census
The National Statistical Office (NSO) has
conducted the first agricultural census in 1950, the second in 1963, the third in 1978 and the fourth
in 1993. For obtaining such statistics regarding the agricultural infrastructure at the village level as
continuation, the agricultural census was conducted in every ten years. In 2003, it was the fifth
agricultural census. NSO collected data on agricultural structures such as number and area of
holdings, land usage, land tenure, planted area of crops, number of inland fishery establishments,
water area under cultured fresh water number of livestock, the use of fertilizer and pesticide,
machinery and equipment.
Fishery statistics were obtained from the Department of Fisheries compiling by the Fishery
Economic Division. These data were gathered from the reports issued by the agencies under the
jurisdiction of Department of Fisheries.
Fishery activities in Thailand were principally divided into 2 categories as follows:
