In newly industrialised countries in Asia, programmes to support the establishment of young farmers are still emerging. This in particularly true in Thailand, despite the declared importance of supporting young farmers in national development strategies. The aim of the present study was to analyse policy tools to help young people start farming in Thailand. First, we reviewed existing policy tools in Thailand and in other countries. Based on this review, a series of workshops were held with young rural people and young farmers in Thailand to assess the most promising policy tools. During the workshops, participants discussed a set of 22 policy tools designed to support access to land, capital and markets, capacity-building and making farming a more attractive profession. The workshop participants thought almost all the proposed policy tools would be useful but gave priority to subsidies to start farming and to secure land leases. Reversing the current, very rapid decrease in the number of young farmers in Thailand will require ambitious programmes, which could not only focus on helping young people who are already interested in farming but also appeal to a broader public by making farming more attractive.
In past decades, young people in newly industrialized Asian countries have become progressively less involved in farming. In Thailand, providing support to young people to start farming is one possible way to ensure that some farms will continue to innovate and play an active economic role in the future. This study investigated if and how Thai agriculture students plan to become farmers. We interviewed a total of 187 agriculture students taking vocational courses or working towards a university degree focused on training future farmers. Among these students, 61% planned to become full-time farmers at some point in the future and 32% planned to farm part-time as a secondary income-generating activity. Most of the students aimed to set up farms that were diversified, knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive. Therefore, although many students came from a farming family and would be able to access some of their parents’ land in the future, most considered that they did not have yet the necessary resources, such as capital and farming skills, to become farmers. Consequently, many students planned to spend time, often up to 10 years and sometimes more, acquiring these resources before starting a farm. Public policies could provide support to shorten this period if graduates in agriculture are to be among young people who engage in farming.
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