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

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40% % farming own land 1963
30%
20% % farming own land 2013
10%
0%
Under 2-5 6-9 10-19 20 - 39 40 - 59 60 - 139 140 - 499 500
2 and
over
Farm size in rai

Figure 2: Proportion of farmers working their own land

Contexts of inequality

To conceptualise, measure and address land inequality in a meaningful
Figure 2: Proportion of farmers working their own land
way, context- and place-specific disaggregation is therefore necessary. Various
categorical and geographical dimensions of context are relevant here, and they
relate to some of the main types of conflict and injustice manifest in Thailand’s

current land relations. They include tenure-specific context, regional patterns,
different types of land use, key trends associated with development and
associated competition or conflict over land, and the wider comparative and
transboundary framework within which Thailand’s land relations are bound up
with trends in neighbouring countries.

Tenure
Broadly speaking, farming in Thailand takes place within three main

regimes of tenure. First is land that is fully titled and alienable, with chanood or
NS4 land documents as provided for under the 1954 Land Code and rolled out
in an accelerated way since the 1980s through the World-Bank and Australian
government supported land titling program. 103 million rai of Thailand’s

121
Philip Hirsch

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