Thailand Country Book

Last update: October 2025

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Thailand. This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific topics in the FDE, see Explore Data.

Summary table

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

In Thailand, geographic regions have no administrative functions, but crop statistics are generally reported both by geographic region and by province. This helps to distinguish the different agro-climatic conditions present in this latitudinally-stretched country.  

Admin 1-level entities are called a Province, (changawat), of which there are 76, plus Bangkok, which is a municipality (maha nakhon).

Below Admin 1 entities, there are additional administrative entities, not described here.

There are 4 geographic regions in Thailand:

• Northern region consists of 17 provinces: Chiang Rai, Phayao, Lampang, Lamphun, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kamphaeng Phet, Sukhothai, Phrae, Nan, Uttaradit, Phitsanulok, Phichit, Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani and Phetchabun.

• Northeastern region consists of 20 provinces: Loei, Nong Bua Lam Phu, Udon Thani, Bueng Kan, Nong Khai, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, Yasothon, Amnat Charoen, Ubon Ratchathani, Si Sa Ket, Surin, Buri Ram, Maha Sarakham, Roi Et, Kalasin, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum and Nakhon Ratchasima.

• Central region consists of 26 provinces: Saraburi, Lop Buri, Sing Buri, Chai Nat, Suphan Buri, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi, Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Nayok, Prachin Buri, Chachoengsao, Sa Kaeo, Chanthaburi, Trat, Rayong, Chon Buri, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Pathom, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi, Samut Songkhram, Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan.

• Southern region consists of 14 provinces: Chumphon, Ranong, Surat Thani, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Satun, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

Evolution of statistical reporting units

Relatively few changes have occurred in the line-up of provinces which comprise the nation’s statistical reporting entities. At the provincial level, these have been the only changes: 

• 1981: Prathum Thani changes name to Pathum Thani

• 1982: Nakhon Phanom splits into Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan

• 1993: Prachin Buri splits into Prachin Buri and Sa Kaeo

• 1993: Ubon Ratchathani splits into Ubon Ratchathani and Amnat Charoen

• 1993: Udon Thani splits into Udon Thani and Nong Bua Lam Phu

• 2011: Nong Khai splits into Nong Khai and Bueng Kan

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

Crop estimate data sources

For the 2004 to present period, the principal source of the agricultural statistics included in FEWS NET’s FDW has been annual yearbooks entitled “Agricultural Statistics of Thailand [YYYY]”, published by the Office of Agricultural Economy (OAE) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. The principal sources of crop data for Thailand are found at: 

• Annual Agricultural Statistics yearbooks: Previously, back issues of annual reports entitled Agricultural Statistics of Thailand <year> สถิติการเกษตรของประเทศไทย were easily available from the OAE website. Now, they appear to be available for the most recent version only on the OAE website.

• Crop specific data can be retrieved at on the OAE website.

• Other crop production data are also accessible at the National Agricultural Big Data Center.

Crop reporting units

Agricultural data is reported only at the Admin 1-level, Province. 

Year and season definition

Year definitions

Thailand uses a Buddhist calendar which begins its year-count 543 years before the Gregorian calendar. In the country’s statistical publications, both Buddhist and Gregorian calendar years are often given. (Gregorian year + 543) = Buddhist year

Table 1: Conversion of years, Gregorian to Buddhist calendar

Official annual crop reporting found in the “Agricultural Statistics of Thailand” yearbook publication series and the FDW contain statistics for three definitions of crop years:

• Cropping year: Major crops are sown and harvested in the May to April (year + 1) period, referred to in the FDW as the Cropping year. This period reflects an annual pattern of rains and temperatures which define the crops and cropping sequences that small farmers, in particular, employ outside of vegetables. This cropping year starts with the main rainy season (May-October), followed by a cool dry season, (November-January), and then a hot and relatively dry season (February April), before the annual cycle starts again. 

• Calendar year: Reference may also be made to crops grown in a Gregorian year-based calendar, referred to in the FDW data as the Calendar year cropping period, January through December.  

• Commodity year: There are three mostly commercial crops (cassava, sugarcane and coffee) which use yet another annual reference period, October through September, to report crop production headed to processing plants. This is referred to as the Commodity year in the FDW.

All of these are included in the same yearbook and have the effect of expanding the actual annual time-period the Yearbook data are describing by an additional 4 to 5 months more than 12 months.    

Annual Yearbooks provide the following year and season descriptions: 

“2017 crops” mean the crops that were harvested in year 2017 (May-December) and whose data are reported in crop year 2017/18. These include major rice, maize (animal feed), soybeans, pineapples, pepper, tomatoes, baby corn, perennial and fruit trees. “2018 crops” mean the crops that were harvested in year 2018 (January-April) and whose data are reported in the same [Gregorian] crop year 2017/18.  These include second rice, cassava, sugarcane, garlics, shallots, onions, potatoes and coffee.

From the “Thailand Agricultural Statistics, 2017” report, published in March 2018.

Note that this statement, always included in Annual Harvest reports, must be updated for each edition of the Yearbook. Occasionally, these dates are not correctly updated (2022 Yearbook), an error that may cause confusion.  

Seasons

Thailand’s Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) provides very detailed cropping calendars for most crops, which vary in their base reporting periods between:

• A seasonal cropping calendar, quite similar in timing to the Buddhist year, reflecting traditional patterns of crop timing and sequencing practices

• A Gregorian calendar year (January-December)

• Several industrial commodity-specific annual periods

The table below provides basic information about how the FDW’s Thailand seasons are defined, labelled, and reported in annual yearbooks. Note all except for commodity year are meteorological in nature, and that Thailand defines the main and second rice cropping periods differently in six provinces in the east of the country’s Southern region (Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat).

Table 2: Thailand agricultural seasons

Primary crops

 Crops statistics are usually presented in the Yearbooks for the following 25 crops:

• Baby corn

• Cassava

• Coconut

• Coffee

• Durian

• Garlic

• Lime

• Longan

• Longkong

• Lychee

• Maize (includes mixed corn and sweet corn)

• Mangosteen

• Oil palm

• Onion

• Pararubber

• Pepper

• Pineapple

• Potato

• Rambutan

• Rice

• Shallot

• Soybean

• Sugarcane

• Tangerine

• Tomato

FDW crop statistics do not generally include data for tree fruit crops, of which there are several for Thailand. Oil palm data are recorded in FDW statistics but generally do not provide production estimates. Some crop statistics are reported only intermittently, like mung beans and groundnuts. 

For the important rice, mixed corn, and soybean crops, seasonal crop statistics have been collected since at least 2009 and are included in the FDW Thailand crop data statistics.  

Production systems

FDW Dominant Crop Production System (DCPS) coding describes two dominant systems:

• All reflects the crop statistics provided by source documents where no indication is given of the types of production systems involved. 

• Rainfed assumes that crops primarily grown during the Wet season are mostly dependent upon rainfall for their growth. 

Note that FDW DCPS coding does not assume that crops grown in the dry or relatively dry seasons are primarily dependent upon irrigation. Such crops may be planted in low-lying areas where residual wet season moisture, or high water-table moisture, provides a major source of the crop’s needs.  These crops are generally coded as All production systems.

Be aware that Irrigated area or Irrigable area are terms used by Thailand’s Office of Agricultural Economics to mean “areas under the services of large- and medium-scale irrigation projects of the Royal Irrigation Department” only. Outside of Irrigated areas, the OAE also uses the term Beneficial Areas to refer to areas that cannot get direct services from large- and medium-scale irrigation projects but where people can benefit from such projects indirectly through small scale irrigation projects initiated by government or farmer agencies. 

Crop statistics context

Note that Thailand generally releases preliminary agricultural statistics after the harvests and then releases a final version the year after that.

The structure of tabular reporting used for annual crop estimates varies by crop and requires close attention when extracting or visually comparing data from original sources. For some crops, columns in the table are ordered as area, yield, and production, while for others the table is structured production, yield and area. 

Conventions used in source document reporting of crop statistics include these: 

• p = preliminary data

• f = forecast data

• r = revised data

• n.s. = data not significant

• n.a. = data not available

• -  = no data

Measurements

All source document agricultural area data are given in rai, for which 6.25 are equivalent to one hectare. In the FDW, rai have been converted to hectares. 

The yield of coconuts and pineapples is given in units produced per hectare (e.g. number of coconuts per hectare). 

All crop statistic production figures are reported in kilograms and metric tons.

Yield

Yield is quite often computed as total production divided by the area harvested, giving a measure of the productivity of the plant under a set of circumstances. In the FDW crop statistics, unless otherwise described, the yield of a crop is computed by dividing the metric tons of production by the total area planted. This relies on the area planted being provided by source documents.

Especially for resource-poor smallholder farmers, this computation (total output divided by total investment of {scarce} resources) better reflects the food security meaning of farming to the food security of a farmer’s family. Maximizing a crop’s output at any level of productivity is probably more important to the farmer, and probably more achievable, than being able to increase the average productivity of the crops he/she plants. This objective undoubtedly contributes to the yield gap seen in smallholder agriculture versus more intensive agricultural production systems. Finding ways for poor farmers to invest in increasing yield while maximizing output remains one of the major challenges to increasing the food security of poor rural households. 

Methodology

No specific information on the crop assessment methodology in use in Thailand has yet been acquired.