My wife just inherited a slew of rice paddies from granny.. she doesnt want to sell them because the family would look down upon it. she's mentioned that we lease it or sharecrop it with locals who dont own their own paddies. does anyone have experience with this? any idea how it works?

Your wife is thinking in a proper direction and has suggested perhaps the most sensible option. You will read far more experienced posts in the FARMING section of Thai Visa.

One more thought on this subject. Be sure your wife goes to the proper Government office and pays the annual "land tax" which in our area I have been told by family is FIVE baht per Rai per year. No sense in any "complications" over her ownership of the land, even if a "share cropper" is working the land, the tax receipts will be in her name. The "property tax" inside an amphur where we built a home is 25 baht a year, but the tax on land zoned for farming is 5 baht in how I received the translation. That office will give a written receipt for the property or land tax.

My wife just inherited a slew of rice paddies from granny.. she doesnt want to sell them because the family would look down upon it. she's mentioned that we lease it or sharecrop it with locals who dont own their own paddies. does anyone have experience with this? any idea how it works?

My family works our land so we have the benefit of the beautiful rice around our house, free rice, and no hassles; everyone benefits. But a more normal arrangment is for the owner to receive something like 30% of the crop.

Cheers,

Mike

Get the usuall crowd together, pay them some baht an hour for planting, harvest and share the harvest. Will give you more goodwill pr bath then about anything else you can do out there.

We have about 100 rai, i would say 80 is rice land, wife has bought the land, with my M........y, the family farm it all and we are on a 35% share they get 65%, lots of thais work on a 70-30 percent, but wife buys all the fertilizer by bulk, just to help them out, we get a very good profit once a year.

The family are happy, now have a good life and money in the bank, before my sister in law asked a local villager to lend her 10,000 baht, and they refused, now there is a complete turn in the circle that person came last year and wanted to borrow 100,000 , sister in law refused, what go's around comes around.

Also once a year i give 5 bags to the temple, this gives you good merit in the village, they think a lot of this, my motto in life is if you treat people with respect you will have respect back from the family.

I have never had any problems with family in Thailand, i love em to bits, and it is good to see them doing ok.

all great and welcome advice, keep it coming. we're off to the village monday

We have some rice land, a couple of years ago she wanted to farm one section of 25 Rai. After paying for the plowing, rice food , and harvesting I really believe we lost lost money. Now I have it all share-cropped on a 30-70% basis and with the prices up a tad I am happy with the arrangement.

I will lend money for the rice food at 0% interest, with the understanding it is paid back with the first harvested load, otherwise they would pay me back when ever.

If the paddies are less than three Rai, I really wonder if its worth the trouble, You would how ever have rice for your family.