Impacts of Land Ownership on the Economic Performance and Viability of Rice Farming in Thailand

Abstract

This article evaluates the impacts of land ownership on the economic performance and viability of rice farming in Thailand, and explores whether they are heterogeneous across different types of farming while using the propensity score matching (PSM) technique. This study categorizes land ownership into two types: full land ownership and weak land ownership. We reveal that full land ownership enhances the rice yield of small and midsize farms, with values of 115.789–127.414 kg/hectare and 51.926–70.707 kg/hectare, respectively. On the other hand, weak land ownership only enhances the rice yield of small farms, with an increased yield of 65.590–72.574 kg/hectare. Full land ownership also helps to reduce the informal debt of small and midsize farms by $16.972–$24.877 per farm and $31.393–$37.819 per farm, respectively. On the other hand, weak land ownership helps to reduce the informal debt of midsize farms, ranging from $36.909 to $44.681 per farm. Therefore, policy makers should encourage small and midsize farm households to adopt full land ownership instead of weak land ownership, as this will provide the greatest benefits to farm households and efficient land use.