Agricutural Land Reform Office

On 22nd November 1975, His Majesty the King graciously granted M.R. Kuekrit Pramoj, the Prime Minister and his entourage, comprising Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary General of Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO) to have an audience of His Majesty. They informed the King about the land reform concepts and methods of implementation. His Majesty kindly provided comments and advices regarding the land reform, through which he learned from his own experiences upon the implementation of several royal distribution and development projects as follows:

1. Initial land distribution for farmers should be in line with the previous land holding size as mush as possible, regardless of begin a landowner or a tenant. Nevertheless, this concept should be in line with the Agricultural Land Reform Act B.E. 2518 (1975), in which the size of land may be reduced according to the geographical condition of such localities,
2. Establishment of communities and houses should follow the need of farmers, and in line with their existing conditions as much as possible. Communities should be arranged in clusters for safety reason. These would make the investment on public utilities such as clean water, electricity, etc. cheaper,
3. Group organization at the village level should be arranged in the system and formulated to be co-operatives in the land reform areas. These should be linked to large cities, so that the cooperatives could actually run business nationwide for the members’ benefit,
4. After development the system of irrigation, transportation, and public utilities has been developed, the co-operatives should take over the implementations and maintenance. Meanwhile, government officials shall gradually withdraw whenever the co-operative is efficient enough to do the job,
5. At the early stage, there should be a competent and devoted officials stationing there in order to provide an advices to farmers closely. At the same time, high-rank officials from the central authority should routinely visit the local officials to provide and support them,
6. Allocation of farmland should take consideration on increasing of local population in the future. Establishment of community forest could therefore provide the reserve land for future use,
7. Land reform in each locality should be quickened in such a short period of 2-3 years, so that farmers could be able to see the output without delay,
8. As for the compensation of the land granted by H.M. the King, the government presented His Majesty the amount of compensated fund for the King’s Property, following the law. Nevertheless, His Majesty returned the fund to the land reform co-operatives, to be utilized as a revolving fund for implementation. In such case, he would appoint an advisory committee for funding management.
9. H.M. the King wishes tenants in his property to earn their living on the farmland as long as they and their descendants could still cultivate, but no rights of ownerships.

           Such Royal Policy clearly implies his need to protect agricultural land, so that the land would be the property of farmers’ descendants permanently, but no rights of ownerships. Arrangements for land utilization and development would be in harmony with existing conditions, to enable the preservation of natural resources and environment, including promotion for group and co-operative organization, so that its members would be widely benefited.