ABSTRACT
Thailand is a country currently undergoing rapid change. Once a primarily agricultural nation, the industrialization process since the 1960s – under predominantly military rule – is expected to propel Thailand into the ranks of the newly industrialized countries alongside a number of its neighbours, with an average annual GDP growth of 10 per cent. This economic progress has been accompanied by social costs: an increasing gap between rich and poor has placed considerable pressure on the livelihoods of the 75 per cent of the Thai population in rural areas, despite the increase in rural-urban migration. Some 40 million of the population of 60 million still earn their livelihoods from agriculture or agriculture-related industries; over 10 million of these are regarded as living in poverty (Pisoun, in Sollows et al. 1991). While the average per capita income in the capital Bangkok is US$1,000, in the rural north-eastern part of the country, where most of the inhabitants are subsistence farmers, the average is US$235 (Ekachai 1990: 19).
