Rural Non-Farm Employment in Thailand
Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 193, 2008
20 Pages Posted: 29 May 2011
Date Written: April 5, 2008
Abstract
During the last three decades, Rural Thailand has undergone massive employment diversification in favour of non-farm employment (RNFE). There was a temporary halt to this process in 1997 and 1998 because of the economic crisis of 1997. However, as the economy overcame the same, share of RNFE in total rural employment has again started increasing. Regional variation in the incidence of rural non-farm employment is very much evident. Gender bias in RNFE is non-existent. From the eighties, in respect of both male as well as female RNFE, the sectors of manufacturing, commerce and services have emerged as the dynamic sectors of employment creation. At the macro level, agricultural growth and decline in average size of land holding have emerged as the two most important determinants of the growth of RNFE in Thailand. To promote the growth of RNFE, the Thai government should formulate activity-specific and region specific policies; reduce regional disparity in the concentration of RNFE; extend the same policy with respect to credit, extension, marketing, subsidy etc. as applied to the farm sector to the non-farm sector and replace its top-down’ approach to rural non-farm sector development by a bottom-up approach.
Keywords: Non-Farm, Rural, Employment, Thailand
JEL Classification: J21
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation