Roi Et
Premium jasmine rice from rehabilitated saline soil—77.5% agricultural workforce, 1.09M tons yield, 61B baht railway coming to link Laos/Vietnam trade corridors.
Roi Et grows the jasmine rice that makes Thai rice famous—and the secret is salt. The Thung Kula Rong Hai plain, once considered wasteland due to saline soils, was rehabilitated by the Department of Land Development across 88,000 hectares. The same salinity and drought conditions that defeated other crops give Hom Mali rice its distinctive aroma and cooking quality. What was liability became advantage; 14,280 farm households now cultivate premium rice on soil their grandparents abandoned.
Agriculture employs 77.5% of the workforce, yielding approximately 1.09 million tons of rice annually. The 2022 GDP reached 83.8 billion baht; average household income runs 15,111 baht monthly, supplemented by remittances from family members who migrated to Bangkok. Unemployment sits at 0.4%—virtually everyone works, even if wages remain low. On Thanon Phadung Phanit, weavers produce silk and cotton textiles; in Si Kaew village, craftsmen build the khaen, the bamboo mouth organ that defines Isan music.
Infrastructure investments aim to break the agricultural ceiling. A 61-billion-baht double-track railway project will link Roi Et to Maha Sarakham, Mukdahan, and Nakhon Phanom—creating logistics corridors to Laos and Vietnam. Roi Et Airport is expanding to enhance connectivity. By 2026, the province tests whether rail and air links can transform a rice-exporting economy into a trade hub, or whether it remains what it has always been: Isan's quietly productive heartland.