In Thailand agriculture constitutes 10.5 percent of the GDP (2014) and employs approximately  25 million people, accounting for 42 percent of the labour force. Over 80 percent of the country's poor live in rural areas (as of 2014) and are particularly dependent on agriculture. Climate change impacts are projected to increase the frequency and severity of floods, droughts, extreme weather events, sea level rise, and high temperatures. Specific risks to agriculture include the destruction of rice and other crops unable to cope with floods, and increased water stress for farmers in drought prone areas.

Protecting the agricultural sectors from these impacts is essential to Thailand’s economy, the food security of its rural population and their way of life. Furthermore, as a major exporter of agricultural commodities, responding effectively to climate change will mitigate negatives shocks on global commodity supplies. Adaptation is a key  priority in Thailand’s response to climate change and the government has stressed the important role that knowledge transfers and technology play within this response, specifically the need for forecasting and early warning system technologies, crop improvement technologies and precision farming technologies.

In Thailand the NAP-Ag Programme is building on what is already working, by supporting the update of the incumbent Agriculture Strategic Plan on Climate Change (ASPCC) 2017-2021. Through this existing plan, there will be an extended focus on priority climate change adaptation (CCA) measures and actions, that mainstream climate change risks into planning and budgeting. The updated ASPCC, furthermore, informs the development of the agriculture components of Thailand’s NAP.

The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) has undertaken vulnerability assessments in the agricultural sector as well as other activities in response to climate change. ONEP and the NAP-Ag work closely together to maximise efficiency.

The objectives of the NAP-Ag in Thailand during the period 2016 – 2018 are to: (1) update the ASPCC including adaptation action plans; (2) strengthen performance-based monitoring and economic assessments of adaptation actions; (3) build institutional capacity to understand climate change risk and vulnerabilities in the sector and integrate this into project design; and (4) contribute to the overall Thailand NAP process, generating lessons and evidence from NAP-Ag activities at federal and sub-national level to realign planning and budgeting processes.