Socio-economic impact of land availability and land use change on farming and rural system development in Northern Thailand

Increasing population density and the movement of farming into marginal zone of mountainous areas have resulted in mountain farming systems which tend to overuse land. As a consequence living standards of people may become unsustainable. In Northern Thailand, this is related to different ethnic groups with variations in knowledge, market access and land availability. This book analyses land availability and land use and investigates the impact of land use change on sustainable development of farming and rural systems in northern Thailand. The main information base comes from own surveys as well as from others primary sources in a research team in Thailand. Farming systems analyses was applied and addresses such questions as: what are the driving factors and economic consequences of changes in land use, land availability and land ownership structures? Considerable changes in land use are observed over time as the results of changes in prices structure, introduction of new crops and soil degradation. In future impact analyses different strategies on land availability and policy options have been assessed in family models applied under different land ownership systems and user rights. The results of the impact analyses confirms that the ownership and tenancy system in relation to credit availability is crucial to the living standard in farming systems and rural development in Thai areas and important for the subsistence of the hill tribes.