Resource information
Paper presented at the International SymposiumSustaining Food Security and Managing Natural Resources in Southeast Asia- Challenges for the 21st CenturyOrganized by University of Hohenheim, GermanyChiang Mai University and Kasetsart University, ThailandInternational Center for Research in Agroforestry, andInternational Board for Soil Research and Management8-11 January 2002 at Chiang Mai University, Thailand
In order to achieve economies of scale, transfer of the inefficiently held land by the part-time and absent farmers to the full-time farmers is essential. The paper thus proposes - as a third way beyond the centrally planned economy and free market system - the establishment of a law to oblige the lease of unused land to full-time farmers with a minimum lease term of one- (preferably five-) year so as to solve land waste and fragmentation and enlarge full-time farm sizes; improvement of village services to fulltime family farms; transformation of the trade-distorting to non-trade-distorting agricultural subsidies; and promotion of off-farm activities, so as to sustain land use under private land ownership and boost EU enlargement.
