APPLICATION OF SAMPLING SURVEY IN ESTIMATING AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THAILAND

Thailand is an essentially agricultural country. Agriculture provides direct employment to 81 percent of the nation's population. Approximately one third of the Gross Domestic Product originates in the agricultural sector, including agricultural crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry. Substantially more income is earned in the marketing and processing of agricultural commodities. The major exports of Thailand continue to be primary agricultural products such as rice, rubber, teak, corn, kenaf, cassava, oil seeds, and other upland crops. These account for 90 percent of total foreign exchange earnings. Since Thailand has a prosperous agrarian economy, and agriculture continues to be the main economic activity despite the growing importance of other sectors of the economy, agricultural statistics are a very important input for decision-making purposes. This applies to all levels of the economy from the farmer to the national political leadership. In order to solve the problem of unreliable agricultural statistics in Thailand, this study attempted to design an appropriate method that would furnish better agricultural data subject to the limited resources available.