It gives me great pleasure to join all of you today in the 2002 regional celebration of World Food Day in Bangkok. This is a special occasion for FAO and Thailand also because this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the FAO Asia-Pacific office in Bangkok. Thailand is most honoured to continue hosting the FAO regional office, and fully aware that FAO has been guiding and assisting countries in the region to fight hunger and poverty for the past half a century.
The theme of this year's World Food Day Water, source of food security is especially relevant and of the highest importance for Thailand's future agricultural development.
Despite rapid industrialization and development of services over the past decades, Thailand's economy is still largely based on agriculture, which employs 60 percent of our people. Agricultural development is the highest among our national priorities, not only for ensuring sufficient food for all, but also for creating rural employment and thus helping fight poverty which is the main cause of hunger.
It is a well known fact that besides fertile land, water is the key agricultural resource that enables Thailand to continue producing farm surpluses for export, in particular rice, which is an important foreign exchange earner.
Although Thailand as a whole is blessed with ample water resources, the geographical distribution of water is uneven. In particular, the Northeast of Thailand known as Isaan faces a serious water shortage with long dry spells even during the monsoon, resulting in low crop yields and less income for farmers.
Agricultural and rural development programmes initiated by Thai government now and in the past have emphasized the development of water resources and practically eliminated malnutrition from the country. Thailand's water resources development budget has steadily increased and presently absorbs a large amount of the national budget for development.
Thailand has also benefited greatly from the wisdom and guidance of His Majesty the King who has always recognized the importance of water in the life of the people.
His "New Theory" on land management and development of water resources for agricultural purposes has been of immense value in promoting sustainable farming practices. He advised farmers in drought prone regions to reserve 30 percent of their land for the construction of farm ponds to store rain water for use during dry spells. This has brought significant increases in crop yields and incomes to farmers in a number of Royal Projects where this theory was applied.
As in most countries of the world, agriculture is the highest consumer of water in Thailand, with a present share of more than 70 percent. Growing demand from other sectors such as industry, tourism and domestic use, together with an expansion of irrigated land, means that there will be less water available per unit of land in future.
This should not cause major problems if water is used more efficiently. We have to establish and enforce incentives, regulations and penalties that will guide and convince farmers to make more rational and equitable use of this precious resource.
Thailand is furthermore going to restructure its agricultural sector as a whole using a US$600 million loan from the Asian Development Bank to finance, among others, several projects to improve our irrigation systems, including a restructuring of the Royal Irrigation Department.
We are also very grateful to FAO for providing us with technical assistance in the formulation of a World Bank-funded project on natural resources management as well as in providing training for Royal Irrigation Department staff in participatory irrigation management, legal aspects of water user associations, water use rights, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation.
This year's World Food Day has provided us with another opportunity to reaffirm our commitment and political will to the fight against hunger. As part of our efforts to alleviate poverty and achieve higher and sustainable agricultural production, Thailand established a national water vision in 1997 which declares:
"By the year 2025, Thailand will have sufficient water of good quality for all users through efficient management and an organizational and legal system that will ensure equitable and sustainable use of water resources, with due consideration for the quality of life and the participation of all stakeholders."
We are now going to translate this vision into action and I am confident that we will succeed in attaining our goal of food security for all.
Thank you.
