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 develop 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
2006/07
, the important economic plants are rice, cassava, maize, pineapple, soy
beans, mung beans, sorghum, groundnuts and kenaf.
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 Southeast Asian
country zone and South Asian zone. Coastal aquaculture is the activity operating along the sea shore,
estuarine areas, canals, lakes inundation areas, mangrove areas, and shallow areas near the sea shore.
