Family Farming Knowledge Platform

Agricultural sector in Thailand has long been playing its important role in terms of serving the global demand for both basic and processed agricultural products. However, the characteristics of Thai farming is considered small-scaled since most of farms are owned and operated by family members and inherited from one generation to the next. That basis was reaffirmed by the fact that agricultural GDP of Thailand was only 12% whereas more than 30% of populations were in the sector. Throughout the country, only 23.9 million hectares are arable land - 68% for field crops, 23% for perennial trees - with limitation of irrigation. The country is currently having 5.71 farming households which 4 members per household on average. The average farm-size is only 4 hectares per household and having 16.2 million labor forces involved in agriculture activities. In an individual household, the level of cash income is as low as 0.24 million Baht per year - about 60% come from farm income.

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As the matter of fact above, the rural development and food security was driven domestically through family farming; however, Thailand has faced increasingly rapid and complex internal and external changes. As a result, the country has applied its achieved development in the past and has adapted to accommodate the impact of changes properly. The concept and framework of country development under the 11th National Economic and Social Development Plan was derived by formally adopting the Royal Initiative of the "Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy". This Philosophy will place "people at the center of development," and promote "balanced development" in all aspects.

Adopting the conceptual framework of the Plan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) has launched one of the principle plans regarding family farming, which is enhancing capacity of farmer and farmer institute in order to implement activities by adopting the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy for ensuring the sustainable development and implementing through such concepts as (1) Driving knowledge and wisdom of farmers through the mechanisms of agricultural extension officers in all related agencies (2) Developing cooperatives system by strengthening cooperatives and farmer groups to be ready for fund accessibility, alternative market mechanism, value adding and to increase productivity by developing cooperatives' business, farmer groups/ small & micro community enterprise (3) Developing "Smart Farmer" to make farmers producing on-demand products with essential knowledge (4) Promoting and conserving Thai traditional handicraft by training farmers living in land­ reformed areas and any other interested people (5) Persuading new generation into agriculture sector by providing opportunity for agriculture-related education, technology transfers and knowledge management.

In food security aspect, the MOAC has issued its own the Policy Frameworks during 2013-2016 which one of strategic themes is producing adequate food for sustainable domestic consumption having the guidelines such as promoting the appropriate and effective use of agricultural production inputs, supporting research on agricultural innovation to increase agricultural production, and promoting the role of farmer groups or communities to enhance food security at the household and community level. In doing so, the country also aware of the inconsistency and unanticipated circumstances under this current and further dynamic situation; therefore, there are many challenges remain in family farming - reducing of farmland ownership, increasing of household debts, increasing of risk and severity of disasters, and aging problems of farmers.