A total of 310,167 rai of <i>Sor Por Kor</i> land taken back from illegal occupants will all be re-allocated to farmers within two years, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chatchai Sarikulya said.
The land, which had been wrongfully distributed, has been repossessed by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro) under an order issued by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) under Section 44 of the 2014 interim constitution.
Gen Chatchai said about 260,000 rai will be re-allocated to farmers in 2017 and the remainder in 2018.
Sompong Inthong, the Alro secretary-general, said the re-allocation will begin with 1,028 rai of land to 200 farmers in Nakhon Ratchasima province in March.
This will be followed by the re-allocation in April of 1,223 rai in Kanchanaburi, 1,000 rai in Chachoengsao, 8,000 rai in Sa Kaew, 600 rai in Chon Buri, and 3,000 rai in Surat Thani. Each farmer will get 6 rai of land.
Mr Sompong said he had instructed Alro offices in 28 other provinces to examine whether any of the land distributed under the agricultural land reform scheme had been wrongfully occupied by investors or their nominees, not farmers.
The intention is for them to take back areas of 100 rai or more which had been wrongfully distributed, for re-allocation to real farmers.