SCOOP
57
JAN 2017 FOOD FOCUSTHAILAND
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Ashift in consumers’ behavior towards diet foods
and a concern over food safety
Consumers nowadays
take foodsafety issueveryseriouslybecause, asmost peoplebelieves,
safe food leads toahealthy life.Around theworld, foodsafetymeasures
were regulated to ensure that foodproducts are safe for consumers.
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International Trade / Interregional Trade
Partnerships
between international and interregional trades will increase. The
needs toaddmorevalue toproductswillbeadriving force towardshigher
exportsand interregionalcooperation. Internationaland interregional trade
will lead to the improvement of product standardswhich apparentlywill
benefit the consumers ingeneral.
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Infrastructure
Infrastructurewill be further developed toanswer
to the economy expansions, which will lead to lower agricultural
production costs.
• Effectsof infrastructureonagricultural productions
Physical infrastructure is thekey to improveagriculturalproductivity in
developingcountries. Infrastructurecanbegrouped into twocategories.
(1) Water supply and Sanitation (2) Other works, including Irrigation,
Energy, Telecommunication andTransportation.
Olsson’s studies on improved accessibility to roads among the
Philippines fishermen (2008) revealed that the improved roads led to
shifts in investment,production,employmentand transportservices.Fuel
consumptionsdroppedby35%,maintenancecost droppedby44%and
transporting timedroppedby 40%.
Astudyondifferenteffectsofgovernmentspendingon theagricultural
growth and poverty in Thailand’s rural areas by Fan et al. (2004)
revealed that investment in agriculture, irrigation system, education in
rural areas, and infrastructure, including roads and electricity, had little
positive impact onagricultural productivityandpoverty in rural areas. In
the case of Thailand, investment on electricity yieldedmore profit than
investment on roads.
• Benefitsof agriculturalmetropolis
An increase inagricultural productivitycanhelpstimulategrowths in
ruralareas, leading toahigherwage for farmersandbetteropportunity for
improvement.Evenoutsideof theagriculturalcircle, thebetterproductivity
leads to the lower price of foodwhich is good for everyone, city or rural
alike. Thiswill significantly help lower overall poverty
in the country.
Good infrastructures help to even out the
productivity growth over the country, enabling the
areaswith lessdevelopment tocatchupwith themore
developed ones.
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Technology
The world today wounds itself
around technologiesand IT, including technologies
on production capacity, information, communication,
biotechnology and foodprocessing.
• Trendson theuseof technology
Nowadays mobile phone is a major player in
communication technology in developing countries.
Early 21st century has seen the huge jump in the
numbers of mobile phones in Asia, Africa and Latin
America and Caribbean. During only 5 years span,
the numbers have jumped up by 100-400% for every
100people in these regions (info fromOrbicom2007).
The relianceonmobilephones indevelopingcountries
has now exceeded 67%. In most countries, more than 90% of the
population reliesoncellular reception.Access tohigh-speed internet
has risenvery rapidly indevelopingareas. In2010alone, therewere
over 2 billion people over the world that locked on to the internet,
half of whichwere in developing countries. The use of internet has
distinctly grown to over 480% since the year 2000 (Internet World
Statistics, 2011).
• The implementation of technology in agricultural
productions
With under-developed communicational infrastructure, most
farmers in rural areasaredeprivedof informationon the truemarket
price, and rely almost solely on the figures given to them by the
manipulative middlemen. The authentic and prompt marketing
information, especially on perishable goods is crucial as it can help
reduce many transactions and travel expenses. By estimation, in
Sri Lanka, expenses onaccess to information constitute11%of the
wholeexpense of farmers.
Benefiting from cellular technology, farmers now can overcome
theobstacles of inadequateand inaccessible information. Common
knowledge can be easily reached through the Crowdsourcing info
system by simple mobile phone. SMS is also another useful tool
in transferring local information, such as in the event of weed/pest
epidemic or informationon any product.
Jensen’sstudies in2007on the impactof theuseofmobilephones
on farmersandfishermen’swaysof living in theKeralastateof India
showed that the use of mobile phones significantly and abruptly
reduced the amount of waste in overall fishing process.
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Social andDemographicChange
Asia has been
going through a social and demographic change that led to
the reduction of the labor force in some countries, causing the lack
of labor andskilledworkers inagricultural business.Also, exposures
towestern cultures andeconomic expansionhave together led toa
change in consumers’ behaviors throughoutAsia.
Source:
“Advanced Agribusiness Management” seminar by Professor
Dr.Ralph D. Christy, Director, Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture
andDevelopment (CIIFAD)andProfessorofAppliedEconomicsandManagement,
Cornell UniversityNewYork, USA.
