Abstract
There were three groups of people living in the Chao Phraya delta prior to the Bowring treaty; They were sedentary rice growers who broadcast rice on the Old Delta, shifting rice growers who transplanted along the coast, and the people of Bangkok and adjoining towns. The first group were the traditional rice growers of Siam who can be traced back to the Ayutthaya period, the second group were far smaller in number and partly engaged in fishing and wood cutting as well. The third group were more or less traders.
Transverse canals dug in the 1860's from Bangkok, to link it with the sugar cane areas on the east and west foothills acted as a trigger which moved the coastal nomadic transplanters farther inland.
The Rangsit project started in early 1890's was the first large-scale delta reclamation. This attracted and absorbed people from all over the deltaic region. Both broadcasters from the Old Delta and transplanters from the coast came, and the broadcast method spread widely due to the area's difficult and unstable water conditions.
One of the characteristics of delta development after the turn of the century was the shift in emphasis from the simple expansion of rice acerage to the improvement of water conditions in the rice fields. Canals dug earlier for transportation were transformed into irrigation and drainage canals. Delta development since World War II has seen the further improvement of rice land, at an accelerated pace. The dissemination of engine pumps and non-photosensitive varieties of rice are changing the previously-established broadcast fields into a new type of transplanted rice land.
