The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives will ask the cabinet to help issue a resolution allowing the ministry to use lands from state agencies for royally initiated projects.
Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Capt Thamanat Prompow, who chaired a meeting on a royally initiated project assessment at the Office of Agricultural Economics on Wednesday, said the ministry has made royally initiated projects its top priority.
He said these projects can help eradicate poverty and improve the living conditions of farmers, who are the country's major population group.
Capt Thamanat said that 4,910 of 5,176 royally initiated projects, accounting for 95%, are under the ministry's responsibility.
He said most are related to creating water sources for people living in remote areas, supporting farming practices, and managing land.
Unfortunately, many of these projects, especially those involving reservoir construction, are not making much progress due to problems with land use permits.
Capt Thamanat cited a case of his hometown in the northern province of Phayao that is now under floods.
He went on to say the flooding problem could not be solved without reservoir construction under a royal initiative.
"I have ordered the Department of Royal Irrigation to stop considering new projects and instead follow the existing royally initiated project guidelines for increasing the country's water security," Capt Thamanat said.
"But it is hard to achieve because of land use permits [from different state agencies]. So, I would ask the cabinet to help unlock the problem," he said.
"I will ask the cabinet to issue a resolution as a shortcut for allowing us to use lands [owned by various state agencies] for all royally initiated projects that our ministry oversees."
These existing royally initiated projects want to use forest land under the Royal Forest Department, military land, or even land under the Treasury Department's responsibility without having to obtain a permit from these state agencies that own the land, he said.
He said the measure would help the ministry speed up many delayed royally initiated projects, mostly involving construction.
However, Capt Thamanat didn't give a timeframe for submitting the issue to cabinet for consideration.
He said the issue had already been raised to the Office of the Royal Development Project Board to consider.