Allocation of agricultural land for oil palm production in Thailand : a macro and micro analysis
- Pathum Thani : Asian Institute of Technology, 2013
- 106 p. : maps, charts
- Thesis ; no. RD-13-10 .
- Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. RD-13-10 .
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for thedegree of Master of Science inRegional and Rural Development Planning
Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013
This research is about allocation of agricultural land for oil palm production in Thailand which is analyzed both in macro and micro levels. The specific objectives of this study are to assess the current situation and predict the oil palm cultivated area in Thailand and study area during 2012-2022, to assess the impact of oilpalm cultivated expansion on other food-crop area and reasons of farmers to cultivate oil palm, to evaluate economic and environmental aspects on the cultivation of oil palm at farm level, and to recommend a strategy for oil palm cultivation with adjustment over food crops.For macro-level, this research is adopted Multiple Regression Analysis with Ordinary Least Square (OLS) for setting the oil palm production model in order to predictthe oil palmcultivated areaand explore relationship among the variables. Moreover, the oil palm productionas dependent variable is considered based on the market equilibrium theorywhich is influenced by five independent factors, oil palm consumption, yield of oil palm production, domestic biodiesel price, and crude oil price. Furthermore, the model in this research specifiesa growth rate relationship among the variables which parameters of the model have an interpretation as elasticityin term of economics.For micro-level, this part is based on the primary data collection by using a standardized questionnaire. The respondents in this research are farmers growing oil palm under AEDP implementation since 2008 in Na Chaluai sub-district, Ubon-Ratchathani province. The farmers included 30 households are from 2 villages that have the highest area of oil palm cultivation. The research was mainly focusedon a quantitative analysis with support of qualitative analysis.Main findings of macro-level analysis demonstrates that, trend of oil palm production and cultivated area in Thailandand Ubon-Ratchathani province increased continuously from 2002-2011. In addition, the expansion of oil palm leads to have an agricultural land competition between oil palm and main food crops. For the result of oil palm production model, the elasticity of the growth of oil palm productionwith respect to the growth of oil palm consumption for food production,growthof oil palm consumption for biodiesel production,and growth of oil palm yieldare slightly less than 1. At last, cultivating oil palm to meet the demand in 2022 will need about 4.5 million rais of cultivated areain Thailand, while Ubon-Ratchathani will needed about 0.15 million rais of oil palm cultivated area. Moreover, yield improvement of oil palm is an important factor in AEDP implementation to reduce oil palm cultivated area.For the findings of micro-level analysis, farmers in Na Chaluai sub-district reduced rice and cashew nut cultivated areas, which are the major food crops in this sub-district, and changed their land for oilpalm cultivation. Moreover, farmers growing oil palm as small area have tended to expand more oil palm cultivation. The main reasons for farmers to cultivate more oil palm are an increasing in trend of oil palm price and government energy policy. Although, most of farmers have heard about food and energy crops competition from local agricultural department officers, they are not concerned about it. In addition, for economic impact, oil palm cultivation as small farm gives more total income than large farm. Whilst, comparing the production cost, oil palm production is higher than rice and cassava production. At the same time, production cost of oil palm have increased continuously from 2008-2012. For employment creation from oil palm ivcultivation, small farm of oil palm production increased using household members as their labour, while both small and large farm were hired more outside labour within sub-district. For environmental impact, most of farmers in small farm of oil palm cultivation faced soil degradation problem because of using more chemical fertilizer and lack of land management. Due to small farmers do not have enough land for oil palm cultivation, they could not plant oil palm in suitable space between oil palm trees and that leads small farmers to have low yield of oil palm. However, most of farmers still use both organic and chemical fertilizer together. For problem of inadequate water sources, most of farmers growing oil palm as small area do not have natural water sources or man-made sources. Therefore, they faced water shortage in dry season. Despite, facing inadequate water for oil palm cultivation, small farmers do not invest in water storage because of limitation of money investment.The recommendations for this research are suggested government or related organization do zoning by prioritizing the benefits in order to manage the cultivated area based on suitability of resources to cultivated oil palm, promoting suitable way and providing knowledge of oil palm cultivation to farmers, supporting Research and Development (R&D) for oil palm yield improvement, promoting farmers to do mixed crops cultivation. Whilst, studying the suitable area for energy crops cultivation, including competition between food and energy crops in each area is recommended for a future policy on alternative energy related to agricultural crops.
Oil palm--Thailand Plants, Cultivated--Thailand Land use--Thailand