start of the eighties, the ratio of agricultural workers was just above 60%, while it was approximately 10% in the manufacturing industry, although the production ratios of both agricultural and manufacturing industry were at almost the same level.
The delay in the conversion of the employment structure has some significance, that the productivity differential per labor is expanding between agricultural and manufacturing industries. The productivity of six agricultural workers was equivalent to that of one in the manufacturing industry when the production ratio of agriculture and manufacturing industry in Thailand was equal in the early eighties. Thus the labor productivity was 1:6 between these industries. By 1993 however, it had become 1:11, indicating that the difference in labor productivity between agricultural and manufacturing industry had been expanding during the economic growth from the eighties onwards. Other countries in Asia have also seen an expansion in the difference between the labor productivity per labor in the agricultural and manufacturing industries during their economic growth in exactly the same way as Thailand.
This imbalance in the labor market is seen as part of the process of economic growth. Rapid technological progress can be seen in manufacturing industries, which increases labor productivity. Although agricultural labor productivity has also been increasing quite quickly within Asian countries, it is rather slower than that experienced in manufacturing industry. The rate of the agricultural labor productivity increase is always lower than that of manufacturing industry, because technical progress is delayed in the agriculture by its existing surplus labor problem.
The agricultural problem has become notable because of the results of the economic growth in ASEAN countries almost exactly the same as those experienced by developed countries. Perhaps we can say that this is the most important issue within the agricultural conditions in ASEAN countries.
2) Variety of Agricultural Development in South East Asia
The economic growth rate of the agriculture is not so low although its
