Page 101 - _21-0619 OK

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

such as Brazil, the USA or Australia which have large farms, few people
employed in agriculture and high levels of mechanisation. The price of farm land
8
in the ASEAN region does not prevent smallholders from earning profits so

long as farm labour is cheap or the owners are ready to work long hours in
fields, orchards and cow-sheds. But as the cost of farm labour rises, production
strategies move away from self-sufficiency and small-scale production for
local markets, and farm incomes come to depend on national and
international prices, smallholder farms have come under stress. Farm land
without effective irrigation and flood control may lose value in less favourable
locations as smallholders move out. Opinions are divided on whether
smallholder farming can be a principle source of income for rural communities
in the longer term. The answer evidently depends on location and on the
quality of land in each local area.

Land for the people: land registration

Despite a large expansion of land registered to private owners, 60% of
the national land area remains state property. This includes national parks,
9
wildlife reserves and reserved forest as well as areas held by many different
government departments and state agencies.

State land has been made available for private and community use under
a variety of arrangements. Long-term leases have been granted for plantations,
quarries and other commercial use. Since the late 1930s settlements for landless
rural people have been established on state land by the Social Welfare
Department and the Department of Agricultural Cooperatives. By 1980 these
covered an area of over 4 million rai and provided homes and livelihoods
to more than 200,000 families (an average of 20 rai per household). Most of
10

8 See www.nass.usda.gov, www.farmprogress.com, www.ruralbank.com.au.
9 Francis Cripps and Naret Khurasee,“Long-term scenarios of economic development and land
use: Context for land management and policy,” presented at the progress report meeting on
'Land Governance for Development: Land Use and Land Policy in: Alternatives for the Next 20
Years', Fauclty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University, 6 October 2020.
Harald Uhlig, “Spontaneous and planned settlement in south-east Asia” in: Agricultural Expansion
10
and Pioneer Settlements in the Humid Tropics, UNU 1988

93
Francis Cripps

5/1/2565 BE 09:03
_21-0619(085-112)6.indd 93
_21-0619(085-112)6.indd 93 5/1/2565 BE 09:03