Urbanization, industrialization in Bangkok and impact on economy of rural household of rural-urban relations in Thailand: a case study of Bangkok metropolitan dominance subregion of Central Plain (UNCRD, Research Project 505)
Kerdpibule, U.
Rural urban relations in the Bangkok metropolitan dominance subregion: 202-268
1979
Document Number: 308297
The growth of urbanization and industrialization in Bangkok is expected to generate external economies and diseconomies to farming in the hinterlands. External economies may include greater opportunities for the rural households to diversify farming enterprises in response to demand for new farm products and new opportunities for non-farm activities for the farm operator and his family. Diseconomies may consist of scarcity of farm land and greater dependence on the urban sector for farm inputs and for household consumption. Statistical tests on various hypotheses concerning the impact of industrialization and urbanization in Bangkok based on survey data from five Changwads in the hinterlands partly support the expectations. For example, it was found that the influence of Bangkok had not made farming households that were relatively close to Bangkok and those which were further away differ significantly in terms of degree of diversification. The impact of urbanization has been to encourage farming households to turn toward commercial agriculture by specializing in rice growing. The cost structure of the crop growing enterprise was also changing in a direction that made them more dependent on inputs that were purchased from the urban sector, so that they became more vulnerable to the price/cost squeeze. Among non-farm activities it was found that a larger proportion of households in the more accessible locations were engaged in commerce and more of them were also found to be doing custom ploughing for their neighbours. In respect to propensity to migrate it was found that the head of households in the less accessible locations expected a greater improvement in their income if they moved to Bangkok. However this propensity was offset by an unfavourable view of living conditions in Bangkok and prospects of finding jobs there.