Political strife and world economic crisis put brakes on development recently. Best bet for Thai agriculture is R&D for increased productivity.As an example of agricultural R&D in action , Thailand recently decided to stop using the insecticides that may be the cause of pest outbreaks. This was praised by the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, an organization at the forefront of agricultural R&D: "Abamectin and cypermethrin are widely used in rice-growing nations to kill pests but scientists believe the chemicals are the main cause of brown plant hopper outbreaks because they also kill natural predators" (From "End to insecticide use welcomed.