Thesis Abstract of AGS Students

Haimin Wang (1996)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relative contributions of input use, technological change and efficiency improvement to the growth of agricultural production in northern Thailand between 1975 and 1991.

Methodologically, the stochastic frontier production function approach was employed to estimate production functions for agricultural sector in northern Thailand based on pooling data at provincial level. The analysis started with the estimation of production functions using the ordinary least square (OLS) and maximum likelihood (ML) estimation techniques. The coefficients estimated from frontier regression were subsequently used to measure production efficiency and to quantify the weights of sources of agricultural growth for the four agro-economic zones in northern Thailand.

The results indicate that: (a) the shares of traditional inputs such as land and labor still occupied the dominant position in agricultural production. The shares of land and irrigation increased while those of labor and tractors decreased over time; (b) the production efficiency measured in this study had been improved a little between 1975 and 1991 (from 80.0% in 1975 to 81.3% in 1991), and fluctuation existed during this period with the highest production efficiency 86.6% reached in 1988 and the lowest 75.5% in 1977; (c) in terms of factor contributions to production growth, the increase of inputs played a major role with a contribution of 54.1%, and technological change also played an important role with a contribution of 42.8%, efficiency improvement accounted for about 3.1%. In technological change, neutral technological change accounted for 88.3% of total echnological change, the rest 11.7% was explained by biased technological change.

The implications for increasing the agricultural growth based on the above results could be: (1) to increase input use; (2) through strengthening the agricultural research and extension capacity to accelerate the technological advances and diffusion, especially in Zone A (Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai and Phayao provinces) and Zone B (Nan, Phrae, Lampang, Sukhothai, and Uttaradit provinces); (3) improving production efficiency further, especially in zone B.

Back to Thesis Topics