Thailand Rural Income Diagnostic: Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Farmers

Abstract

This report applies the framework to diagnose the opportunities and constraints faced by the rural economy and households and to assess policy options to address these constraints. The approach builds on four steps. The first step consists in examining the socio-demographic profile and living conditions of rural households. The second step assesses opportunities to increase the income of rural households. The third step investigates the key constraints preventing rural households from taking advantage of these opportunities and explores the sequencing and overlap of the constraints. The final step examines the feasible policy actions that would help rural households overcome the key constraints to increasing their income. Details are provided in Figure 9. The analysis selects the key constraints that prevent households from taking advantage of identified opportunities. Prioritization of constraints requires assessing the likely benefits of pursuing the opportunities compared against the costs of relaxing the constraints. There are four criteria suggested by Hill (2018) that are used to identify the priority constraints that need to be address: (1) the constraint limits several important sources of income; (2) strength of evidence that addressing the constraint will help income growth, (3) the constraint has a stronger impact on poorer households or regions, and (4) existing evidence on the need to address the constraint first before other constraints can be addressed. Potential feasible policy solutions are suggested to the prioritized constraints. The potential for the policy solutions to address the constraints, their feasibility, and the size and breadth of their impact is graded based on the review of evidence and discussion with experts and stakeholders operating in the field.