A series of planning and analytical models is being developed and applied to Thailand's agriculture through the Division of Agricultural Economics (DAE) of the Royal Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. This work is assisted by a team of research workers from Iowa State University. This research report estimates the effects of improvements in truck transportation specifically on the rice subsector of agriculture and is just one step in developing a transportation submodel in the national and interregional programming model of Thailand agriculture. This research involved the development of a kingdomwide transportation model and applying it parametrically. Changes in trucking costs and the potential increase in farm revenue because of the changes in transportation models and costs are evaluated.

Other research will be forthcoming as specific studies are made of the markets for rice and other commodities. These market studies include the estimation of demand functions so that the impacts of export and other policies can be better evaluated.