1. Good production conditions

Thailand is located in southern Asia, in the center of the Indo-China Peninsula. The terrain is high in the north and low in the south, sloping from northwest to southeast, bordering Laos in the northeast, Cambodia in the east, Myanmar in the west and northwest, and Malaysia in the south. The land area is 514,000 square kilometers. The population is 61 million, of which the rural population is 35 million, accounting for 57% of the total population. There are 19 million hectares of arable land, most of which are "reliant on Tiantian", and only about 20% are irrigated. The main characteristics of rice production are described below.

1. Wide distribution. Thailand has a wide range of rice cultivation. According to the resource and ecological conditions, the country is divided into 4 rice areas. However, due to factors such as drought, acid damage, soil salinity, low fertility and factors such as rice planthopper, rice blast, rodent damage, bird damage, and weed damage, the average unit yield is low. The first is the northern rice area, which accounts for 23% of the country's rice fields, with more people and less land, better irrigation conditions, and the highest rice yield in the country (230kg/667 square meters); the second is the northeast rice area, which accounts for 44% of the country's rice fields. %, less people and more land, poor production conditions, the rice yield is the lowest in the country (80kg/667 square meters), it is the main producing area of ​​fragrant rice; the third is the central plain rice area, the paddy field area accounts for 26% of the country, with an average yield of 150kg/ About 667 square meters, it is the concentrated production area of ​​deep rice; the fourth is the southern rice area, the paddy field area accounts for about 7% of the country, and the average yield is 125kg/667 square meters, mainly economic crops. According to the statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of Thailand, in 1998, the total area of ​​rice in the country was 9.7 million hectares, the total output was 21 million tons, and the average unit yield was 144kg/667 square meters, which was 102kg/667 square meters lower than the average rice yield in the world and higher than the average rice yield in my country. Low 257kg/667 square meters.

2. "Relying on Tiantian" is more. Thailand's annual paddy field area is 9 million hectares, 75% of which are single-cropping rice "depending on the sky", and high-quality varieties with relatively high stalks are often planted in the rainy season from June to December (the average yield is 120kg/667 square meters); double-cropping rice that requires irrigation It only accounts for 20%, and dwarf varieties are often planted through irrigation in the dry season from January to June (the average yield is 230kg/667 square meters or more); about 3% is deep rice (refers to the rice that grows in a water depth of more than 50cm, generally Sow seeds in shallow water, float on the water, and grow taller as the water deepens. Some deep rice plants have a height of 3 to 5 m, with an average yield of 100 to 200 kg/667 square meters); about 2% are upland rice (the yield per unit is also relatively low).

3. There are many varieties of conventional rice. Thai rice is mainly conventional rice varieties. According to the director of the Thai Rice Research Institute, conventional rice in Thailand accounts for more than 98%, and hybrid rice accounts for less than 2%. In my country, it is mainly hybrid rice. In 1998, the sown area of ​​hybrid rice accounted for more than 61% of the total rice area, while conventional rice only accounted for 39%.

4. The planting scale is large. There are 3.43 million rice-growing households in Thailand, with an average of 2.8 hectares per household (including 3.2 hectares in the central plain, 2.6 hectares in the northeast, 2 hectares in the northern region, and 1.3 hectares in the southern region). The planting scale is only 0.13 hectares.

2. Scientific research and promotion into a system

The work of many departments of the Agriculture Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation of Thailand is closely related to the scientific research and production promotion of rice. The Thai Rice Research Institute located in Bangkok was established by some staff from the Rice Division of the former Agricultural Bureau when the former Agricultural Bureau was divided into one Agricultural Bureau and one Agricultural Extension Bureau in 1983, and is under the leadership of the current Agricultural Bureau. This Rice Research Institute is actually a management institution that directly and indirectly manages 6 regional rice research centers (1 in the northern rice region, 1 in the northeastern rice region, 3 in the central plain rice region, and 1 in the southern rice region) and The work of 18 rice experiment stations (4 in the north, 5 in the northeast, 7 in the middle, and 2 in the south) under the research center. Each research center is responsible for the research tasks in the region, and each research station is responsible for the rice research work in several provinces (there are 73 provinces in Thailand), forming a relatively complete rice technology extension system. There are 6 agricultural extension offices in various regions under the Thai Agricultural Extension Bureau, whose main work is investigation and research, formulation of plans, supervision and evaluation, technical guidance, training, and services. The promotion work is carried out at the national, regional, provincial and district levels. National and regional work conferences are generally held once a year, and provincial-level meetings are generally held once a month. The technical training takes the district as the unit, and the technical promotion focuses on the farmers connected with each agricultural office, and expands the service scope through the demonstration of the key farmers. Its promotion funds are fully funded by the government, but its promotion agencies cannot engage in business operations to generate income.

At present, the research on rice in Thailand mainly includes five aspects: the first is rice quality improvement, the second is the development of new varieties, the third is plant protection technology, the fourth is post-production technology, and the fifth is seed breeding technology. The goal of variety improvement: good quality, high yield, good resistance and wide adaptability. The basic requirements of rice quality: first, the rice grains should be long, generally above 7mm, second, it should be beautiful and clean, and third, the palatability should be good. Domestic research indicators generally do not strictly emphasize the content of amylose, but due to the relationship with palatability, the amylose content of exported rice is generally required to be below 19%.

3. High level of processing technology

By visiting the large-scale rice processing factory of Patum Rice Processing and Storage Co., Ltd. (Patum-ricemillandgranarypubliccompanylimited), it is obvious that the processing technology and management level of Thailand's rice is not the world's leading, but far exceeds that of my country. The plant is located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in Praithum Thani Province, covering an area of ​​2.9 hectares. The factory was built in 1981, with an investment of 1 billion Bt ($25.64 million in US dollars), and the total profit and tax income in 1998 was 3.85 million US dollars. A complete set of modern processing equipment (mainly produced in Germany, Japan and other countries), mainly has two production lines, one is a rice processing production line, with a daily processing capacity of 1,200t of paddy (annual processing capacity is 402,000t); the second is a rice bran extraction production line, daily extraction Rice bran 100t (32,000t extracted annually). The main supporting facilities are rice silos with a volume of 60,000 tons, rice silos with a capacity of 12,000 tons, and rice bungalows with a capacity of 30,000 tons. It has continuous drying facilities of 100 tons per hour and rice feeding facilities of 200 tons per hour, and dock loading and unloading capacity. Reach more than 3000t per day.

The rice raw materials used in this plant are mainly fragrant rice, main season rice and secondary season rice. The main indicators for the inspection of purchased rice are: first, the moisture content, the moisture content of the main season rice is generally 20% to 22%, and the storage is dried to 14% by the enterprise; the second is the grain shape, which is the main indicator for investigating the main and secondary season rice. The third is the purity, the smaller the impurities, the better; the fourth is the amylose content, which is the main indicator of fragrant rice. Generally, the amylose content of fragrant rice is required to be ≤19%.

The company's products are mainly bagged rice, which are divided into 6 categories and 5 categories. The 6 categories are: fragrant rice, ordinary fragrant rice, main seasoned rice, secondary seasoned rice, brown rice and red rice. The 5th grade is: the first grade is fragrant rice with a purity of 100%, the second grade is white rice with a whole rice rate of 100%, the third grade is rice with a whole rice rate of 95%, and the fourth grade is a whole rice rate of 75% to 80%. % of rice, fifth grade is broken rice whose length is less than 6/8 of the length of a full meter. The packaging is mostly 5kg, and the expensive fragrant rice or brown rice is generally 2kg bags. 95% of the company's products are sold domestically, and only about 5% are exported. Exported rice includes all grades, even rice with a broken rate of 10% to 25%.

In addition to deducting 4% of impurities from the rice entering the factory, about 65% of the rice is packaged into bags and directly used for domestic sales and export, of which milled rice (about 50%) enters the market through wholesale and agency sales. In addition to this rice, the company makes complete comprehensive utilization of rice (part of the company's tax is supplemented from by-products), and there are many by-products. These by-products are mainly broken rice, rice husk, rice bran, rice bran oil and rice husk meal. Broken rice is the main component of small food production. Broken rice with a length of ≥6/8 whole meters is often mixed with 100% rice according to market demand to adjust the different grades of listed rice. About 15% of the mill's broken rice is mainly used for blending rice, supplying rice flour mills and as feed. 23% of the rice husk is used directly for power generation (the main energy source for the plant's drying system), and the rice husk meal is exported to steel and chemical fiber plants in Europe. 8% of the rice bran is sold directly as feed to feed mills on the one hand, and is used to refine rice bran oil on the other hand to become industrial and cooking oil. The Thai government encourages enterprises to build factories in agricultural production areas, and implements a preferential policy of 30% tax reduction or exemption for enterprises for 8 consecutive years.

There are two main aspects of quality control of rice processing in Thailand: one is the harvesting, cleaning and storage of rice before processing. Processing enterprises usually require farmers to control the harvesting time of rice when the maturity of rice is 90% to 95%. After the rice is delivered to the rice mill, the rice mill generally uses a grain cleaning machine and a stone remover to clean the weeds, soil, stone sand and other debris in the rice, and at the same time detect the moisture content of the rice. The moisture content is less than or equal to 14% and stored directly in the warehouse. If the moisture content is greater than 14%, it is sent to the dryer for drying and precipitation, and then stored in the warehouse (the resulting cost and expenses are provided by the Thai government through tax reduction and preferential treatment for enterprises, which greatly reduces the farmers’ grain sales. cost). The moisture content of paddy has a great influence on the rate of whole milled rice. If the moisture content is too high or too low, it is easy to cause different degrees of grain breakage. Therefore, there are a series of indicators for the optimum moisture content of various varieties of paddy rice processed in Thailand, and the quality control is carried out by category, and never mixed. The second is shelling, whitening, grading and screening. Rice processing has always revolved around maximizing the rate of whole rice and reducing the rate of broken rice. The shelling rate is generally controlled at about 90%. Once shelling is complete, broken rice and broken rice will increase significantly. Whitening is to process and whiten the brown rice from the rice husker, and use a whiteness meter to monitor the quality. Thailand adopts multiple whitening methods according to market demand. Many rice factories in Thailand use wet rice processing technology for polishing. The mist liquid makes the surface of the rice grains wet and rubs against each other under the action of mechanical force, and finally the surface of the rice grains becomes smooth and shiny, and the particles are crystal clear and transparent, which is very attractive. Rice grading in Thailand is mainly based on the ratio of whole milled rice rate and broken rice rate to determine the rice grade. Generally, high-quality rice has a high rate of whole rice, a low rate of broken rice, and a uniform appearance. Almost all good Thai rice is whole rice. The graded high-quality rice is often mixed with a small amount of conspicuous brown rice, red rice, yellow rice and other variegated rice, which seriously affects the appearance. The visited rice factory has a row of five sets of color sorters for spectral screening before the rice is packed. After screening, the processing of high-quality rice can be completed. Then, according to market demand, various grades of rice are put into plastic bags of different sizes printed with trademarks and sold on the market. Thai rice is priced by grade, and the price of different grades of rice varies greatly, and the price of some high-quality rice is several times that of ordinary rice. Therefore, in the process of rice processing, improving the rate of whole rice can achieve better economic benefits.

Fourth, the purchase and sales market is active

The price of rice in Thailand varies completely with the market. During a visit to a primary market with more than 20 private grain merchants in Nakorn-sawan province, several grain merchants were seen at the same time and in the same place. The competitive scene for payments. It is said that the Thai government stipulates that farmers will not pay tax in the primary stage of selling rice.

Thailand is currently overproducing rice. In 1998, Thailand's total rice output was 21 million tons, consumption was 11.1 million tons, 9.9 million tons of rice was exported, and 6.4 million tons of rice was exported. The Thai government intends to control rice production and expand beans, corn and some cash crops, but because farmers are accustomed to growing rice, and many areas are flooded every year, they can only grow rice, and the plan to adjust the production structure has been slow. Until the economic crisis in 1997, the king determined to carry out the reform of the planting system, and the research proposed a "3331" king model (that is, in each farmer's cultivated land, the water surface accounted for 30%, horticultural vegetables accounted for 30%, rice cultivation accounted for 30%, Building and breeding accounted for 10%). In the past two years, Thailand's agricultural research and promotion agency has carried out research on horticultural crops separately from field crops, and stepped up the implementation of the farming model proposed by the king, which has achieved good results. According to the Thai side, the promotion of the King's Model in the past two years has enabled 1/3 of the farmers in the cities to return to their farms, which has played an important role in Thailand's smooth overcoming of the economic crisis.