Paper Title
Rice Milling in Thailand: Crisis or Opportunity

Abstract
Rice production has long played a pivotal role in socio-economic development, making Thailand one of the world’s largest rice exporters over the previous three decades. Development of the Thai rice industry demonstrates a lack of balance in relation to rapid change of trade, troubleshooting, and support from government. These factors have contributed to economic problems and have had a direct effect on production and operational processes relating to national trade. The Thai economy depends on international trade to strengthen the capacity.Some researches demonstrate that regional location of rice mills, size of business, type of business (e.g., family business), rice mill activity (e.g., roasting), and government/institutional factors pose as formidable considerations. Limited investment in education, technology, and modern machinery are barriers to growth. It is now time that interventions should focus on helping to build capabilities though training, education, technology, and innovation to enable this industry to re-gain a sustainable competitive advantage and move up the global rankings in this sector. Currently, there are two choices for rice mills need to choose. In one hand, they choose to develop their own available technologies to assist in the operation in the rice mill. As well as learn more in order to develop their rice mills. In other hand, they are to continue to use the technology and knowledge of the ancestor. At the same time, the government must have a clear policy that helps to support the operation of the rice mill to improve the likelihood of survival Thai rice mill. It is time that the Thai government must consider “Smart Miller” not only “Smart Farmer”. Keywords - Rice Milling, Miller, Rice Industry, Thailand