The government is expected to grant land usage rights on more than 50,000 rai of state land to about 10,000 people starting this month, said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Gen Dapong Ratanasuwan.
Speaking after a meeting of the National Land Policy Committee (NLPC), Gen Dapong said a panel in charge of the land grant scheme said up to 53,000 rai of land will be distributed to the poor as part of an initial roll-out in Chiang Mai, Mukdahan, Chumphon and Nakhon Phanom provinces.
Gen Dapong said the committee is considering allocating land in the form of cooperatives in which people can make use of the land together and share any profits from cultivating the land.
It is not clear if the tenants will be required to share any profits with the government.
The minister said the land allocation should not be called a land "handout" because the government will still own the land.
Gen Dapong said governors will inspect the designated areas, and the Interior Ministry will be responsible for screening the people eligible for the scheme. Criteria for consideration include annual income, which must not exceed 30,000 baht, he said.
"This will be the first gift for the people," he said.
The plan comes just a month after the NLPC was created to extend help to people evicted from encroached public forests under the government's efforts to better regulate land use.
Three panels will see the scheme through. One is responsible for designating the land. The second panel will prepare a list of people qualified to receive the land, including displaced forest encroachers. The third panel is in charge of skills development and of classifying land plots for various purposes.
Gen Dapong said three types of land are being considered for the scheme: 5,000 rai of deserted land that can be distributed immediately; 4.5 million rai that people have been using without any ownership documents; and 14 million rai that is pending ownership verification.
Asked how many people will eventually benefit from the land scheme after the pilot phase, Gen Dapong said about 1.6 million people have an annual income of less than 30,000 baht but it is impossible to give land rights to all of them.
Responding to questions about the crackdown on encroachment, he said authorities will meet tomorrow to discuss that policy.
He said the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will inform the public of progress, but noted the encroachment crackdown is separate from the land allocation scheme.