A land bank is being mulled by Land Reform Office

[Lite Beer]

A land bank is being mulled by Land Reform Office

The Office of Land Reform for Agriculture is considering turning the OLRA Fund into a land bank with an authority to redeem land pledged with commercial banks by farmers and to return the land plots to the indebted farmers on condition that they will have to pay back the Fund in instalments.

OLRA secretary-general Mr Veerachai Narkviboonwong said that the above idea was meant to keep the land for agriculture purpose and to enable the farmers to work in their farmland if they want to rather than allowing the land to fall into the hands of the bank and utilized for non-agricultural purposes.

He disclosed that currently the Fund has a starting capital of three billion baht which are mostly inactive.

The OLRA is also in the process of amending the existing Land Reform for Agriculture Act B.E. 2518 in preparation for the transfer of some OLRA land plots to the care of the Treasury Department.

Mr Veerachai said the agriculture minister had made a good point about the proposed transfer of some land plots to the Treasury Department, saying that a city and town plan must be in place before the transfer to prevent the expansion of town or city into the reform land in the future.

OLRA is also considering increasing compensation for farmers who want to quit farming and to give up their reform land to OLRA because they have already developed the land to become productive, he added.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/land-bank-mulled-land-reform-office

-- Thai PBS 2014-12-28

[scorecard]

IMHO this is a worthwhile idea to explore.

But I suggest the agency involved here should have a specific responsibility to be very active to educate the farmers in this grouping and to keep them well informed

in regard to, at least:

- The good reasons to ensure the land ownership is never used unwisely / the dangers of selling the land and perhaps there should be strong rules whereby in most cases they cannot sell this land without the written approval of this agency. And with rules that this agency must respond to any questions / communications from the farmers within say 14 days and must be in writing.

- They cannot by law give the land documents to others as any form of security.

- Totally illegal for landlords, suppliers etc., to take the ownership documents as security.

- Plus a small team of respected people from this agency must monitor the repayments and where needed help the farmers to plan their finances, but in no circumstances the government agency officials actually touch / handle the funds of these farmers. Plus If the farmers feel intimidated by the people they owe money to, then the government officers from this agency should ensure they accompany the farmers to the payment location and ensure all documentation / receipts are correct. Plus agency officers caught doing anything illegal or inappropriate should be subject to mandatory severe punishment

Edited December 28, 2014 by scorecard

[Pib]

I think this article is saying the OLRA would pay the banks which now have control of the land since it was used as collateral in a loan to the farmer. Basically, the OLRA would buy the loan from the bank....the OLRA (the govt) has now assumed basically a non-performing loan but will give the land back to the farmer if the farmer pays the OLRA which will probably offer a better loan repayment deal/lower rate/maybe write-off some of the loan due amount. Basically taxpayer dollars being used to fund the program.

[Sviss Geez]

IMHO this is a worthwhile idea to explore.

But I suggest the agency involved here should have a specific responsibility to be very active to educate the farmers in this grouping and to keep them well informed

in regard to, at least:

- The good reasons to ensure the land ownership is never used unwisely / the dangers of selling the land and perhaps there should be strong rules whereby in most cases they cannot sell this land without the written approval of this agency. And with rules that this agency must respond to any questions / communications from the farmers within say 14 days and must be in writing.

- They cannot by law give the land documents to others as any form of security.

- Totally illegal for landlords, suppliers etc., to take the ownership documents as security.

- Plus a small team of respected people from this agency must monitor the repayments and where needed help the farmers to plan their finances, but in no circumstances the government agency officials actually touch / handle the funds of these farmers. Plus If the farmers feel intimidated by the people they owe money to, then the government officers from this agency should ensure they accompany the farmers to the payment location and ensure all documentation / receipts are correct. Plus agency officers caught doing anything illegal or inappropriate should be subject to mandatory severe punishment

"- They cannot by law give the land documents to others as any form of security.

- Totally illegal for landlords, suppliers etc., to take the ownership documents as security."

As the ownership documents would be in the hands of the Land Reform Office new bank neither of those situations could exist.

[noitom]

Doesn't Thailand already have LH Bank (Land and Houses) and BAAC (Bank for Agricultural and Agriculture Cooperatives)? What do these organizations do? Why doesn't the press explain this and the additional bank that is being proposed here? The Thai press clarifies nothing.

[maidee]

will that not take the LOANSHARKS out of business ?

will we see protests and roadblocks from them soon as it is not FAIR to their business model ?

[Phil Water]

A one time socialist party controlled province in Canada had a system of government land collection that looked like this and was called just that "The Land Bank". It failed miserably at accomplishing its similarly stated goals. The concept comes from near extreme socialist government system.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Phil Water