The value of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agricultural sector (excluding theagro-industry subsector) during the 1994 - 2005 period was very small, or less than 1%of total foreign direct investment. Not only was the value small, the fluctuation betweenthose years was very high. These FDI, from more than 13 countries, amounted toapproximately 6% of the total FDI in Thailand under the BOI privilege schemes. Theseinvestments included the production of both primary and processed agricultural goodsand the production of seeds and seedling multiplication programs. Once new technelogiesare available and intreduced to Thai famers, the diffusion rates were very high. As for theissues of agricultural R &D and agricultural technology transfers, there isevidence indicating that the trends were increasing both in terms of quantities andtypes of research projects. Most of the R &D projects were done by private firmswhose R &D funds were financed by their parents companies or their subsidiariesabroad. In the case of processed goods for exports, such as chicken, pineapples and tigerprawns, the FDI were mostly in the form of joint venture companies. This played a majorrole in the successes of these export industries. The foreign partners made decisionson the design of processed products and chose processing techniques to suit foreigndemand. In the beginning the commodities were produced for export to the countrieswhere the FDI came from. Later on, as the production greatly expanded, new exportmarkets were added. New knowledge and technologies were seemingly diffused verywell to other Thai entrepreneurs and labors. Hence, the Thai agro-industries have beendeveloped greatly during the past decade.