Ministry land bill takes aim at foreigners

[stgrhe]

Ministry land bill takes aim at foreigners

Law to be first to 'fully protect' Thai farmland


-- Bangkok Post Wed 19 August 2009


The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry is drafting a bill to protect rice paddies from a feared massive land grab by foreigners.

The draft law will be the first to fully protect farmland, deputy permanent secretary for agriculture Thawatchai Samrongwattana said.

The bill will set out clear measures to prohibit foreigners from buying land through Thai nominees, he said yesterday.

Recently, rumours have spread that foreign businessmen have been snapping up rice-growing land, particularly in central Thailand, through proxy Thai companies to produce rice and other crops to ensure future food supplies for their own countries, or to fend off starvation at home.

Transnational business consortiums are said to be holding the land through Thai nominees, which is against the law.

Some Thai farmers are reportedly leasing land they previously owned but have since sold to the foreigners' proxy firms, observers said.

The bill will also address land ownership by foreigners who marry Thais.

Under the draft bill, each land purchase by Thais married to foreigners would be closely scrutinised by Land Department officials and a provincial farmland protection panel, Mr Thawatchai said.

He said the bill would allow the immediate revocation of the rights of plots found to be held by foreign businesses through Thai proxies. The committee would be authorised to arrange the resale of such land.

About 60 million rai of irrigation land, including areas where the Land Department will build reservoirs, and land belonging to the Agricultural Land Reform office, would be protected by the bill, he said.

The agriculture minister will table the draft bill for the cabinet's consideration next month before submitting it to parliament for approval, Mr Thawatchai said.

"The ministry intends the bill to become law within this year," he said.

The bill would allow for a fund to be set up to protect farmland. The government would be required to allocate a budget to manage the fund and buy back land from foreigners. Farmers could also take out loans from the fund to invest in developing the land for agricultural purposes, Mr Thawatchai said.

A central committee would be set up under the bill with the prime minister as chairman. It would comprise experts and representatives from the private and agricultural sectors.

The committee would regulate the use of farmland or revoke the ownership of farmland that had been purchased through nominees.

A provincial land protection committee would also be set up and chaired by a provincial governor.

Land owners could not appeal the central committee's decision, he said.

The deputy permanent secretary said the bill had been modelled on similar laws in foreign countries, such as Japan and the US, which heavily regulate land ownership.

[heretostay]

another positive move by the ministry of silly idea's, The farmers not complain when they sell the useless land to foreigners with Issan wifes for 100% over the market value, so let them keep it and pay the money back.

Reason rice is to high be cause the toxic goverment paid them to do nothing.

[BaaBaa.]

Reason rice is to high be cause the toxic goverment paid them to do nothing.

Load of shit!

[stgrhe]

another positive move by the ministry of silly idea's, The farmers not complain when they sell the useless land to foreigners with Issan wifes for 100% over the market value, so let them keep it and pay the money back.

Reason rice is to high be cause the toxic goverment paid them to do nothing.

I think the Government here is actually much more concerned about the large areas of farm land the Arabs have bough though nominee companies rather than the farang / wife couples buying small pieces of land.

G.

[JW]

I heard a while ago that Thailand had done a huge deal to supply food products to UAE - must be some sort of link.

[thaiorchid]

stgrhe.
It is not about the Arabs, the goverment is targetting the Swedes. They have finally realized that all the Swedes buying houses in and around HH are all part of a bigger plan. The housebuying is only a front, as we all know the real goal is to take over the lucrative pinapplefarming, to finally be able to market THE SWEDISH PINAPPLE.
thaiorchid

[lomuamart]

I'll assume that thaiorchid's post is not serious.
The original story has been around for a while and certainly involves the Gulf States.

[Super Joe]

I think the Government here is actually much more concerned about the large areas of farm land the Arabs have bough though nominee companies rather than the farang / wife couples buying small pieces of land. G.

The original story has been around for a while and certainly involves the Gulf States.

Agree, it's been reported on for well over a year now, all about this global panick to secure long term food supplies and the increasing food costs. Think Thai farmers have struggled to compete recently with neighbouring countries and obviously land owners are happy to cash in when investors open their cheque books ...

















SJ

[Super Joe]

Looks like we might find out next week who's been doing what ......






SJ

[STEVE G]

Yes, it's all to do with land being bought up my middle eastern money for commercial farming.
Actually most of the falangs with land in their wifes name are up in areas of Issan where there isn't enough rainfall for large scale farming ventures.
We have some ourselves given by my partners mother, but it does no more than give some employment for the family and you would never get anywhere farming it for any real profit.

[hhfarang]

Same here, we have a fairly large farm up in Issan in my wife's name. Her sister is trying to grow rubber trees on it now I think...

[Spitfire]

Yeah, all that land up in Isaan is mostly that brown/red clay stuff with the exception of a few areas. The decent land you can get two harvests of rice (or whatever) a year on, the stuff in Isaan is mostly good for only one time unless your farmland happens to be very near a large body of water or has one of those concrete river flow things near or running through it. Even so, the soil suffers from nutrient exhaustion and needs fertilizer in one form or another (they use cow shit most of the time).

I did wonder about how this new bill/law will affect inheretance land for foreigners wifes. Never really figured out the score on that.

Also wondered about where in the future all the rice farmers are going to come from anyhow. Last year there was a report in the Bangkok post about there officially being more people living in cities (52%) than in the villages (48%) and that the exodus is continuing. Where I work there are so many students that are the sons and mostly daughters of farmers from Isaan and none of them would even consider becoming a farmer, they are studying stuff like 'Public Health' or 'Busiuness Technology' etc and the parents have put the land in the bank against a loan to send the kids to college/university. Point is, is that there are so many more students in higher education these days and they won't want to go back to the rural desert once they've seen paradise. When I go to the villages I see only those that cannot escape/leave, ie the young and the old, not much in between unless they are on a very good gig, which is not too many of them.

I can only see the farms getting bigger and bigger as time passes because many young people don't want to be farmers these days. It's a hard life and they (Thais) even write poetry about it. The current generation of land owners in the villages are generally about 50 and above with no desire or chance to change things because it's all they have known so will stay on their piece of land that they or their parents marked out when the land laws were drawn up initially, but their kids are a different story, the kids want city jobs/cars/western weddings/3 bedroomed house in an estate/computers/jaspal clothes/restaurants/nightclubs etc etc etc.

[Takiap]

Good post Spitfire

I think the same is happening in many countries, in that kids grow up and have no wish to continue farming where their parents left off. I was born and raised in a city and how I wish I could have my own farm. The problem is of course that, at least in the west, you would have to be extremely wealthy to be able to afford to buy a farm nowadays so it's a bit of a catch 22.

I don't think any career in the world, apart from medicine, could make me as happy as what farming could. Unfortunately, having grown up in South Africa, only the rich could afford medical school so I missed out. And, of course only the super rich could have afforded to buy a farm so I had even less chance there. Oh well, at least I have a goat in Thailand and with any luck, I'll soon have a few chickens as well. Just fancy the idea of collecting my own eggs in the morning as I've never had the opportunity.....lol. Can't wait for the fresh goat milk but it seems to be taking forever.

Back to topic...................No matter how we look at it, we as farang get to keep.........................well nothing really

[pitsch]

So when do you plan to have the wedding?

Caught in the act, he had no choice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4748292.stm

[Condoking]

If I'm not mistaken, this is reported to be aimed at the foreigners, mainly Arabs, who are buying up large tracts of land in Asia and Africa to "guarantee" their food supplies in the future. There are schools of thought that by 2030 we will have the "Perfect Storm", with worldwide shortages of Food, Energy and Water.

Now I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer , but I cannot see the Arabs selling their Oil to the rest of the world if the wells are running dry, they'll look after themselves first and up yours to the rest of the world.

On the contrary, when food gets short, I can see the African and Asian rice and other commodity controllers selling to the highest bidder and to hell with their poor countrymen. This may work for a while until hunger turns the poor masses against the government and then protectionism will kick in, exports will be banned and the Arabs will get nought from their investments.