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Executive Summary

“Thai Agricultural Land Management: From Crisis to Sustainability”

In the past two decades, there has been growing pressure on Thailand’s agricultural land due to a
number of factors, notably economic expansion in several sectors, continuous population growth,
and climate change. Four key problems arise, namely: (1) permanent loss of agricultural land as it
is converted for non-agricultural uses; (2) deterioration of soil quality in currently-used farmland,
both physically and chemically, due to extensive and rapid land utilization for food production to
support growing population without soil improvement; (3) land tenure problems, including lack of
ownership, landlessness, and land tenancy. The poor have continued to demand that these
problems be solved, but the problems continue to exacerbate, resulting in conflicts between the
poor and the government; and (4) reduction in productivity of agricultural land due to frequent
floods and droughts induced by climate change.

Such land problems can also be attributed to the ways in which agricultural land has been
managed. Thailand’s agricultural land policy in general has covered a wide range of issues,
therefore being too complex and difficult to implement. Many government agencies are involved
in agricultural land policy, each of which has its own statutory authority. But there have been no
concrete policies that deal specifically with agricultural land. As a consequence, agricultural land
problems have been difficult to solve and are expected to escalate and become a real crisis in the
future.

In principle, systematic and sustainable management of agricultural land should cover five
objectives, namely: (1) to reserve land for agricultural production while increasing productivity;
(2) to improve production security by reducing risks; (3) to prevent deterioration in soil and water
quality and the environment; (4) to generate adequate revenues that justify investment; (5) to
enhance social justice.

Even though Thailand’s agricultural land management has aimed at achieving these
objectives, the system has not been so effective. In order for agricultural land management to be
effective and achieve the above five objectives, so as to prevent future crises and lead to
sustainable land use, there needs to be a land policy specifically for agricultural land use, instead
of a generic land policy that is currently in place. The current research project aims to explore
such a policy option.

Objectives

The research project “Thai Agricultural Land Management: From Crisis to Sustainability” has six
objectives, as follows:

1. To compile and review Thailand’s agricultural land policies, laws, and
implementation methods from the past until the present;
2. To study the problems in agricultural land management and their causes;
3. To study the situations in agricultural land use that are caused by land management
policy, as well as land use changes at the national level;
4. To identify the lessons in managing agricultural land that could be learned from
international cases and applied to Thailand;
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