Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery 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
2004/05
, the important economic plants are rice, cassava, maize, pineapple, soy
beans, mung beans, kenaf, groundnuts and sorghum.
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:
Inland fisheries
Inland fisheries compose of
2
main activities, i.e. harvesting from wild and
aquaculture, wild freshwater fishes were totally harvested from public water bodies, and flood plain
areas in the rainy season while cultured species were obtained from ponds, paddies, ditches, and cages.
Marine fisheries
Marine fisheries and coastal aquaculture are the main fishery production of
the country. Marine fishery resources are divided into
3
groups, i.e. pelagic fishery resources, demersal
fishery resources, and invertebrates or other aquatic animals. Two marine fishing grounds of the country
are the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea area. As for deep sea fishery, it is usually done in
