Agricultural Mechanization in Thailand: Current Status and Future Outlook

Mechanization plays pivotal role in Thailand, where agriculture is rapidly transforming from subsistence farming to agribusiness model on the country's 46.6 % total land allocation to agricultural activities. With average farm size of 4.04 ha/household, Thailand is a host of 5.9 million farms on 23.9 million ha agricultural land or 46.6 % of the total land area. Nearly 50 % of the total agricultural land is cultivated for rice, 21.5 % for field crops, and 21.2 % for fruit or horticultural crops. Agricultural mechanization for rice production has been the most impressive when compared to other crops in Thailand. Central plain of the country is the highest and nearly full mechanized region. The number of agricultural tractors per 1,000 ha of arable land in Thailand has exponentially increased since 1960s; on an average there are above 50 tractors per 1,000 ha of arable land. Currently there are two modes of utilizing agricultural machinery: as an owner and/or through custom hiring service. There exists considerable variation across the regions in Thailand in terms of agricultural machinery utilization. Labor shortage and necessity to lower production cost in agriculture make mechanization an inevitable solution in the present agricultural landscape in Thailand. It is expected that the demand for agricultural machinery will continue to increase in coming decade. However, different regions require different mechanization solutions. There seem to be a growing market for 4-wheeled tractors under 30 kW, along with matching rotary implements-which would be replacing the existing power tillers in rice production systems of Central plain and Northern regions. This paper reviews the current status of agricultural development, agricultural mechanization and agricultural machinery industry in Thailand, and discusses the trends to present future outlook.