Agricultural Zoning and Policy Conflict: Thailand’s Experience

Abstract

Agricultural zoning is a regulatory approach that redefines property rights. The tech - nique has been used to preserve agricultural area and ensure food security of a country. This chapter described a historically grounded approach to establish the agricultural zoning of a country and its applications for Thailand, including the analysis of its per formance using the historical research method. Reviews of historical literatures, research papers, agricultural acts, government office reports, and news have identified the most crucial factor that causes agricultural zoning in Thailand to fail both at the farm level and at the country level, as the agricultural commodity price. The findings suggest that agricultural zoning in Thailand should undergo major revision by taking the agricultural commodity price into account. The agricultural commodity price set based on its origin was proposed to be appended in the existing agricultural zoning program. The method will address the two critical issues that the agricultural zoning programs in Thailand try to solve: the mismatch land-use problem and the crop price instability.