Agricultural Information Technology in Asia and Oceania 1998 19-19© 1998 by The Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture

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1. Importance of Agricultural Sector

Thailand is a tropical country situated in SoutheastAsia with a total area of 514,000 square kilometers orabout 51 million hectares, of which about 40 percent areagricultural land. The total population in 1996 was about60 million. The agricultural sector, although declining inrelative term, is still playing a significant role in thenational economy. Since most of other developments arebased on agriculture and majority of the people are stillliving on farms or depend on the agricultural activitiesfor their livelihood. However, the agriculturaldevelopment in Thailand in the past has been achievedlargely at the expense of the country’s rich naturalresources. Consequently, the country is now confrontingproblems of natural resources and environmentaldegradation. The forest area had decreased from 19.8million hectares in 1976 to 13.4 million hectares in 1993or average loss about 0.4 million hectares per year.

During the 20 year-period between 1976 to 1996,gross domestic products (GDP) for agricultural sectorhad increased quadruple from 92,460 million baht to368,720 million baht but its contribution to nationaleconomy had decreased from 27 percent to 9 percent.Similarly, the agricultural population had also increasedfrom 29.67 million to 36.98 million while its proportionhad decreased from about 70 percent to about 61 percent.For export, the agricultural exports had increased almostten times from 45,707 million baht to 414,730 millionbaht but its share had fallen from 76 percent to 29percent. It is also interesting to note that manyagricultural products exported from Thailand were eitherranked first or on the top ten of agricultural trade in theworld market. These included rice, natural rubber,tapioca products, sugar, canned pineapple, frozenshrimps and frozen chickens. Thus it is not exaggeratedto say that even though Thailand is a small country it isone of the few countries in the world that able to producefood enough to help feed the world. The agriculturalsector in Thailand is therefore not only importance to thecountry itself but also to the whole world as well. Despiteof its importance, most farmers are still very poor ascompared with other occupations. Presently, the GDPper capita for non-agricultural sector is higher thanagricultural sector more than ten times. The averageannual cash income of agricultural household in cropyear 1995/96 was about 81,000 baht, of which 60 percent

came from off-farm or non-agricultural activities.However, the net saving was only about 24,000 baht perhousehold.

2. Agricultural Statistical System

The agricultural statistical system in Thailand is adecentralzed system. The two major agencies involved inagricultural statistics in Thailand are as follows:

2.1 The National Statistical Office (NSO)

It is one of the government agencies with adepartmental status under the Office of the PrimeMinister. The NSO is responsible for conducting allcensuses relating to population, industry, agriculture etc.,as well as large-scale statistical surveys, such as labborforce survey, socio-economic survey and intercensalsurvey of agriculture.

2.2 Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE)

It is a department under Ministry of Agriculture andCooperatives (MOAC), which is the prime agencyresponsible for collection, compilation, anddissemination of all current agricultural statistics. Othermajor functions of the OAE are to conduct agriculturaleconomic researches, formulate and recommendappropriate agriculturalpolicies and initiate development plan as well as monitorand evaluate certain projects of the Ministry.

3. Application of Information Technology inAgriculture

There is no doubt about the importance ofinformation especially during the “Information Age” asit is called today. The role of information technologybecomes more and more influence to ways of life for allpeople including farmers due to its fast development.Those who access to more information generally willhave more advantages than those who has limitedinformation. The information technology has beenwidely used in Thailand for many years mainly inbusiness sector. For agricultural sector, it is still mostlylimited to the government agencies and the mainobjectives are for data processing or establishment ofdatabase. In recent years, however, the geographicinformation technology (GIS) together with remote

Application of Information Technology in Agriculture inThailand

Apichart Pongsrihadulchai

Office of Agricultural Economics, Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Thailand

Pongsrihadulchai

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sening technology became a popular tool amongagencies within the MOAC for planning developmentproject. In this section two important examples of theapplication of IT in agriculture are disscused. The firstexample is the application of GIS for agricultural zoningwhile the second one is the use of internet technology fordissemination of information.

3.1 Application of GIS for Determination of CropSuitability Zone

This project is under taken by the OAE, MOAC withthe objective to dilineate the suitability areas for eachimportant crop in each watershed. The procedures can besummarized as follows:

3.1.1 Collection of thematic maps of scale 1:250,000 andenter into the GIS. These include basin map, soil seriesmap, rainfall map, irrigation map, legal forest boundarymap, present landuse map (obtained from interpretationof Landat-5 images), road network map, andadministrative boundary map.

3.1.2 Conversion of these analog maps to digital maps.

3.1.3 Overlaying of digital maps to determine thesuitability area for each crop follows:Grouping of soil series according to soil characteristicsinto 4 levels as highly suitable, moderatly suitable,marginally suitable and unsuitable.

1) Classifying of areas according to quantity ofrainfall and availability of irrigation system into 4classes as similar to (1). The irrigated area isalways considered as highly suitable area.

2) Overlaying the maps from (1) and (2) andobtaining the suitability map. For each crop 4levels of suitability are determined as (1).

3) Overlaying the maps from (3) onto legal forestboundary map and present landuse map and thenclassifying the area using the following criteria:- Existing forest area will be classified as non-

agricultural area.- Conservation forest area will be classified as

non-agricultural area regardless of the existingcondition.

- Economic forest area will be classified asagricultural area if there is no more existingforest and the land is suitable for agriculture(highly and moderately suitable).

3.1.4 As results, for each crop, 4 major zones aredetermined.

1) Agricultural ZoneFor this zone it is further classified as highly

suitable, moderately suitable, marginelly suitableand unsuitable areas.

2) Economic Forest ZoneThis zone is further divided as

- Existing forest area - Encroachment area which will be classified as

agricultural area if this area is either highlysuitable or moderately suitable area for somecrops, otherwise it is recommended to be areforestation area.

3) Conservation Forest ZoneThis zone include existing forest area and area

for rehabilitation.

4) Other Zone

3.1.5 The final recomendation of particular crop suitablefor each area will base on the economic information suchas farm price, yield per unit area, cost of production,transportation cost, and market demand etc.

At present the suitability maps for rice, corn, cassava,soybean, sugarcane, rubber, tree crop and pasture hasalready finished for all 25 watershed areas. However, theestimated area for each category is not yet available.

3.2 Internet for Farmers

This is a pilot project initiated and supported by theOAE, MOAC and is carried out by the Institute ofTechnology for Rural Development, ChulalongkornUniversity. The pupose of the project is to study thefeasibility of using internet technology as a two-waycommunication tool for tranfering of productiontechnology and economic information from governmentagencies to farmers as well as a channel for recievingmessages from farmers. It is also designed in such waythat farmers can also communicate among themselves. Itwas started in 1996 in 5 provinces near Bangkok andabout 60 local organizations were participated, of whichabout half were Tambon (Sub-District) AdministrationOrganizations (TAO) while the other half wereagricultural cooperatives.

For the first experimental phase, only one centralhost at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok isestablished and all users must make a long distance callthrough the special telephone numbers provided by theproject. The service is limited to the off-line BulletineBoard System (BBS) mode only without any on-linesearch or web browsing. This phase will concentrate onhow to manage and organize the two-waycommunication within the community effectively byexploring the appropriate way to communicate betweenthe local organization and farmers in the community. Atthe Ministry offices in Bangkok the experts in variousfields in different departments are requested to join theBBS by responding to the relevants questions andproviding the information needed by farmers.

The participated local organizations must already

Pongsrihadulchai

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have their own computer and telephone line. The projectprovides only the modem and the required clientsoftware. All technical issues are also supportedincluding on site hardware and software installation,technical training for the users and solving any problemduring operation. The project also support the cost oflong distance call with the maximum time limit to 10minutes per call. The agricultural experts in Bangkokwho help supporting information can use local call to thecentral host with separate lines or via internet. A localvillager in each experimental area is recruited to work asan informant for conveying messages from local office(cooperatives or TAO) which obtained information fromBangkok to farmers in his village and also conveys themessages from farmers back to the local office for furthertransmission to Bangkok via BBS for corresponding.Farmers are also able to exchange their views andexperiences through this system.

The next phase will be the installations of provincialhosts and the improvement of information disseminationsystem. The establishment of local hosts will cut the longdistance telephone cost and allow the number of users toconveniently expand. It is planned, however, that aftertermination of the pilot project all of the communicationcost and facilities will be the responsibility of the localorganizations.

After implementation for about a year it was foundthat there were still many obstacles and difficultiesremained to be solved. The main problem was that thelocal organizations were not actively participatedespecially in further dissemination of the information tothe farmers which is the ultimate target groups of thisproject. This is because they do not yet convince aboutthe benefit of having the BBS.

4. Future Plan

The development strategy as stated in the 8 thNational and Social Development Plan (1997-2001) is touse people as focal point of development. In thisconnection, the MOAC has proposed “TheStrengthening Capability in Management of the FarmersProject” to be implemented during this plan. In order toimplement this project effectively and efficiently, thefeasibility study for finding the appropriate curriculumsand approach is needed. The available informationtechnologies such as teleconference, direct to homesatellite, and internet will be investigated for using as amean for tranfering of technology and relevantinformation to farmers. It is expected that the use of ITfor this purpose in the long run will save the governmentbudget and personel. More importantly, there will be noinformation gap between the original sources and theend users of the information as compared with theconventional procedure which the information wereconveyed to farmers in many steps via goverment

officials at various levels of administration.Unfortunately, this project could not started due to thepresent economic crisis in the country.