Over the past years the government has boasted of numerous economic advances, including an increase in GDP figures. Yet this does not necessarily bode well for its plan to tackle poverty. In fact, these achievements have exacerbated economic inequality, with farmers now marginalised at the bottom of the social spectrum.
A study by the Bank of Thailand's Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research (Pier) shows that the country's poverty problem is deep-rooted and can't be solved by superficial measures aimed at political gains. On the contrary, such measures worsen the problem. Unless it is rightly addressed, this will become a political time bomb that will throw the country into crisis when it goes off.
According to the survey, 40% of farming households are living below the poverty line, set at 32,000 baht (US$995) a year, with the sector's low income and higher debt a drag on the country's economic growth. Farmers' annual per capita income stood at 57,032 baht last year, just shy of the government's 2021 target of 60,000 baht. Some 66% of their income comes from farming. Meanwhile, 30% of farming households are struggling with debt that exceeds their average farming income on a per-person basis. Another 10% have debt equivalent to three times their farming income and half have debt equivalent to 60% of their income.
