Rice production in Thailand represents a significant portion of the Thai economy and labor force. Forty percent of Thais work in agriculture, most of them as rice farmers. Thailand has a strong tradition of rice production. It has the fifth-largest amount of land under rice cultivation in the world and is the world's second largest exporter of rice. Thailand has plans to further increase the land available for rice production, with a goal of adding 500,000 hectares to its already 9.2 million hectares of rice-growing areas.