Mr. Peerapan Kothong, Secretary-General of the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), revealed the OAE's operational guidelines for upgrading to a leading agency guiding agricultural economics. This focuses on strengthening the economic and data teams in collaboration with various academic partners. The Puey Ungphakorn Institute (PIER) of the Bank of Thailand is a key partner in this academic collaboration. Therefore, discussions were held with Dr. Somrasmi Chantarat, Director of the Puey Ungphakorn Institute, to determine strategies for upgrading agricultural information systems, developing economic research, and creating learning mechanisms for joint personnel development. This aims to lay the foundation for developing a data infrastructure and agricultural research in Thailand that is accurate and up-to-date with global changes.

The discussions focused on overall organizational development to become a leading institution guiding agricultural economics, with an emphasis on strengthening the economic and data teams, encompassing data management, economic analysis, and policy analysis. This is achieved through the creation of expert teams in three key areas to drive seamless academic collaboration between central and regional levels. The goal is to elevate the standards of economic research and analysis, establishing a clear framework for thought processes. Emphasis is placed on summarizing key information for policymakers, coupled with robust academic evidence. Specifically, research challenges focus on addressing future risks to the Thai agricultural sector, encompassing sustainability and global crises, global economics and trade, technology and productivity structures, and social and economic security at the grassroots level, in order to find concrete and timely solutions.

Furthermore, the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) aims to improve the comprehensiveness and accuracy of annual agricultural economic forecasting and reporting through Economic Outlook development using multiple economic models. This is coupled with upgrading agricultural data structures, including calculating agricultural GDP using the expenditure method, utilizing satellite imagery and digital footprints to assess productivity, and continuously collecting socio-economic data of agricultural households in a panel data format to accurately measure the impact of policies on individual farmer households. Additionally, the OAE is designing a big data architecture throughout the value chain, systematically linking data from upstream to downstream, and promoting a Single ID system to connect farmer data across the entire system. This includes creating a new governance ecosystem for agricultural service providers (ASPs) and analyzing the efficiency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives' budget utilization to maximize benefits for farmers.

Meanwhile, the Puey Ungphakorn Economic Research Institute (PIER) is ready to provide full support in various aspects, including jointly designing data systems and architecture for in-depth policy analysis, and jointly promoting policy research to solve concrete problems such as farmers' debt problems, crop insurance, and the Reinvent Thailand project to create a blueprint for upgrading the Thai agricultural sector throughout the value chain. Furthermore, they will develop the capabilities of researchers through the Visiting Research Fellow program, which provides opportunities for personnel from both organizations to exchange knowledge through hands-on academic work. The ultimate goal of this in-depth collaboration is to create public policies based on accurate and up-to-date data to sustainably improve the income and quality of life of Thai farmers in the future.

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