The self-sufficiency philosophy advocated by His Majesty the King has turned into a middle-class dream, as grass-roots people are increasingly being gobbled up by the market economy, say local and foreign experts.
Chamroon Suaydee, a representative of environmental group the Eastern People's Network, said that, unlike Thailand's 10 million middle-class citizens, the poor have been stripped of resources to cultivate a self-sufficient lifestyle and are starting to doubt that they will ever find what is considered "enough".
"We have been talking about [the concept] for a long time, but it hasn't been happening," said Mr Chamroon.
Nowadays, farmers are keen to use pesticides because they have a perception that crops will not grow without them, he said.
"Farmers also know that organic fertiliser is good, but they choose to purchase [chemical fertiliser] instead of making organic fertiliser," he said
In the long run, he said, it is inevitable that contract farming will play a major role in Thailand, and farmers will have to change their mindset.
Hardeep Grewal, head of corn marketing at Syngenta Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, said small-scale farmers in the Asia-Pacific region have entered the market economy over the last 20 years.
"All of the sudden he [the farmer] is realising he can get extra yield and money, which could be invested in his children's education, health, house, utensils and farm equipment. In the current economic environment, small farmers will find it difficult to survive just by doing farming," Mr Grewal said.
He believes farmers will look at other sources of income and seek help to do the farming.
"We know the financial benefits of farmers working together. There is an evolution in Europe, Australia and the US. We think this type of trend will happen here [in Asia]," said Mr Grewal.
This results in the rise of a service industry in farming, which is happening in countries such as China and Thailand, he said, adding that some of these are cooperatives that could expand to large-scale ones with revenues at US$100 million per year like those in the US.
Veerachai Chaochankit, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries' agricultural machinery club, said although self-sufficient agriculture is a good idea, only 100,000 households have committed to the practice out of 35 million farmers.
"How long has the King talked about it? And how many farmers have actually adopted the idea? Why? Because it's not fun," he said.
Prof Paul Teng, a senior fellow of food security at Nanyang Technological University's Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, said self-sufficiency does not make sense economically, especially when every country is influenced by the global supply chain.
"I think political systems dictate the answer. Politicians that make rational decisions will realise the opportunity costs of self-sufficiency are not worth it," he said.
"In terms of crises, everyone will suffer. With the Asean Economic Community, the question is whether self-sufficiency sentiment will disappear with this collective agreement."