This report summarizes initial work in regional rural development as one phase of an agricultural sector analysis project being conducted in the Division of Agricultural Economics (CAE), the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Royal Thai Government. The project is a cooperative one between the Division of Agricultural Economics and Iowa State University and is funded by the Agency for International Development.
The overall project has several phases including national and interregional programming models for analyzing policies and five-year plans, macro models of the entire Thai economy, models of the transport and market sectors, and others.
The report which follows explains the initial work completed on regional development of agriculture. Further work on regional economic development is now underway. The analysis in this report relates to the Northeast Region of Thailand. The Northeast Regional Model (NEREGON) includes the 15 northeast Changwats (provinces) of the nation. It also includes five of the Agro-Economic Zones used in constructing the national linear programming model for Thai agriculture. The Northeast was selected for initiating work on regional development since incomes are relatively low, soil and climate are less favorable for crop production, and underemployment of labor is greater than in other regions. This initial study relates to improvement of incomes and employment, mainly through the region\u27s agriculture. Subsequent analyses will consider agribusiness possibilities, nonfarm industry, and human and public services. The current study revolves around a programming model since, in the short time after the overall project was initiated, data were more readily available for this approach. As other data are accumulated and verified, additional types of models and analyses may be included.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/dae-card_sectoranalysis/1000/thumbnail.jp
