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โครงการหนังสออเล็กทรอนกสด้านการเกษตร เฉลมพระเกียรตพระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว
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647.28 million baht (84.91%) was allocated to oil palm production, consisting of upstream

(56.83%), midstream (0.76%), and downstream (27.32%). The rest of the budget 13.11 million
baht (2%) was allocated to marketing research and 101.96 million (13%) was allocated to policy

and planning research. The previous grant on oil palm research for Thailand is allocated a large
portion on basic research, cultivation, and product development. From the analysis of the oil

palm research frameworks of Malaysia and Indonesia, it is found that the oil palm research

framework of Thailand is quite broad and similar to that of Indonesia. However, the framework
of Malaysia's oil palm research has focused on several key areas, which cover industry-wide

development in response to the challenges that the country is facing. For the current oil palm
situation in Thailand, the key challenges facing oil palm industry key stakeholders can be

grouped into 4 categories:

1. Upstream production: Palm growers lack understanding and knowledge on good palm
plantation management and spatial management practices. Many palm plantations

with low-quality palm seedlings affect productivity and yields. High production and raw

material costs among smallholders.
2. Upstream production: Oil palm bunch collection centers do not comply with the

standard practices, creating quality of oil palms feeding to palm oil processing in the
midstream production.

3. Midstream production: Imbalance between annual production of palms and capacity

of palm oil processing factory results of raw material shortage feeding into midstream
production resulting in low utilization of palm oil processing factory. No quality control

over the trading of the palm fruit. Lack of incentives to invest in value-added
production.

4. Structural problems: Lack of infrastructure to support the development of the oil palm

industry, and lack of responsible agency to monitor, regulate and promote the oil palm
industry.

According to information gathered from the focus group comprised of key stakeholders in

the oil palm industry e.g., researchers, government agencies, and the private sector, the result
indicated that research on the oil palm industry needs to align with the overall goal and

direction of the agriculture policy. Lack of overall country strategies and goals for the oil palm

industry is one of the primary issues which result in misalignment of grant allocation. As a
result, there is some research grant concentrated in a few areas and some scattered in many

topics.