Trend in pasture development in Thailand is, favorable but since the major part of agricultural land is planted to food crops, the approach to pasture development is centered on the improvement of communal grazing land, roadside waste areas, paddy bunds and waste areas by oversowing with legumes. The most important legumes used for this purpose are Verano stylo, Townsville stylo and Siratro. Backyard pasture is promoted in small dairy farms and the important species for this type are Hamil, Guinea, Ruzi, Para and Leucaena. Pasture establishment under plantation and forestry crops is also being promoted. Selected species are Signal, Centro, Cori and Guinea. Establishment of pastures is usually performed by seed sowing but for backyard pastures transplanting techniques are recommended to avoid damage caused by animals kept around the homestead of the farmers. Soils in many areas are low in P, and S and N are required to increase the yields of forages. Large amounts of farm by-products are considered to be an important source of animal feed and techniques for improving their quality are available.
Research on species evaluation, fertilization and crop-livestock integration is presently carried out but the problems inherent to the limited facilities and lack of coordination body between institutes hamper the progress of pasture work.