The Sor Por Kor 4-01 land reform paper will be upgraded to a land title for agriculture, allowing farmers to use the land title to apply for a bank loan.
The decision was announced after yesterday's Agricultural Land Reform Committee (ALRC) meeting chaired by Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Capt Thamanat Prompow.
The minister said that the policy will help improve living conditions for farmers.
The Sor Por Kor 4-01 land reform papers were introduced in 1975 to give poor landless farmers plots for small-scale farming. The land cannot be sold and can only be transferred to the children or heirs of the holders but over the years, many plots have illegally changed hands.
Those farmers wishing to get the new title deed must have held their Sor Por Kor plot for at least five years. Converted title holders must also plant a certain number of trees as required by the ALRC. Selling the land can be done to a new land bank, which will soon be set up, he said.
Capt Thamanat said land reform is needed because the old Sor Por Kor 4-01 policy is outdated, especially not allowing the paper holder to change hands.
The committee concluded that the land could be sold, but the new owner must be a farmer or someone with a farming-related business to purchase. They can purchase land up to 50 rai at maximum for agricultural purposes and up to 100 rai for livestock.
He also added that the office will announce a policy supporting local communities to develop social enterprise businesses on Sor Por Kor land. The ministry will kick off the pilot project in major provinces, including Phuket, Kanchanaburi and Chiang Mai.
The land plots can be rented from a land reform office in those provinces. The earnings will be sent to the land reform fund, which will allow farmers to apply for loans, he said.
Capt Thamanat said the ministry will also have a new evaluation of land prices of Sor Por Kor 4-01 plots nationwide because the present value assessment is very low and needs to be updated. Currently, about 40 million rai of land is registered under Sor Por Kor 4-01 land titles nationwide, he said.
In addition, he said that the ministry would seek cooperation from the Ministry of Justice for farmers to use their new land farm title as a surety for a court to release offenders on bail.
The ministry will issue the new land title for the first 25,000 of 146,000 registered farmers on Jan 15.
To facilitate the financial service to farmers, ALRC signed a MoU with the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives to set up regulations for holders of the land title for agriculture to apply for loans.