Nevertheless, figure 2 demonstrates that the majority of labor force still belongs to
agricultural sector even an employment is in the decreasing trend. NESDB (2008) indicated
that households in agricultural sector are among Thai poorest. That means solving the
agricultural problem would help the most of the poor in Thailand. Timmer (2003), who
studied the relationship between the agriculture, growth and poverty of several countries
including Thailand, expected the positive direct impact in agriculture to the farmers who are
normally classified as poor. Additionally, Thai agriculture is well-known as a major
agricultural exporter in the world with the rank of fifteenth. Figure 3 introduces export
statistic for milled rice and natural dry rubber as the first and the second rank respectively in
the world. Thereby agriculture turns to be a key source of export earning and rural income
(Suphannachart and Warr, 2010). Agriculture also plays a crucial role of shock absorber for
unemployed labors in non-agricultural sectors during adverse circumstances, such as Asian
financial crisis in 1997 and sub-prime crisis in 2008-2009. Unemployed labors from nonagricultural
sector went back to agriculture as the second-best solution at their hometown.
Furthermore, Thai agriculture suits for the future source of income and growth if Thailand
could be able to maintain a net food supplier during an anxiety of food security around the
world (FAO, 2008). Therefore, Thai agriculture should not take out of the consideration.