BANGKOK, 30 August 2011 -MD Kraisit Tantisirin, President of the Nutrition Association of Thailand, said food security was a significant concern in the country as the number of rice farms had declined by 2 million rai during 2003-2008 while 4 million rai more land were turned into para rubber tree plantations.
In a seminar on food security, MD Kraisit said over 320.7 million rai of land for various purposes where 112.6 million rai of them were farmlands with rice fields accountable for half of them. According to him, the average life span of a farmer is currently between 47-51 years old. And given that the younger generation of a farmer family refusing to follow in their parents’ footsteps, the threat to the supply of rice suddenly seems imminent.
The President of the Nutrition Association of Thailand warned that serious actions need to be taken before the situation exacerbates. The report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that from 2004-2006 17% of Thai population, or 10.7 million people, suffer malnutrition. He raised concerns as how many would there be now.
He added that according to the Bureau of Epidemiology 1.2 million people in Thailand suffered from severe diarrhea in 2009 from contaminated food or for every 100,000 people, 2,023.64 of them having food poisoning. Among them 65 were dead. MD Kraisit purported that issues concerning food were a major concern in all aspects of public health.
