LAND REFORM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R001900010005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 22
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 16, 2006
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 8, 1973
• Content Type: MF

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SHy - 7 3
8 November 1973
MEMOIRANDUM FOR:
THROUGH
: Acting Chief, Southeast Asia Division
SUBJECT : Land Reform in Southeast Asia
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offer the luting primarily as a background aid for
research effort.
readily available in our files. We have exploited very
little of the material in the attached bibliography and
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who
desired a brief structuring of land reformsituations in
the various countries of Southeast Asia. He apparently
plans to undertake his own research of the subject in much
greater detail. As you will note, the content of our
assessment varies considerably from ccuntry to country,
which reflects both a'time constraint and use of materials 25X1
The attached materials were requested by
Acting Chief
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OE k/S /E C
7 Nov 73 (S-5640)
Distribution
Orig. & 2 - Addressee
2 - D/S
1 - D/OER
1 - St/P
1 - St/CS
3 -? S/EC
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Land Reform in Southeast Asia
Agricultural development its the cornerstone of economic
growth of most loss developed countries in Southeast Asia.
The myriad problems associated with building a strong
agricultural sector include institutional constraints that
emanate from historical land tenure patterns. Concomitants
to high tenancy rates and large numbers of landless farmers
have traditionally been a high degree of tenant exploitation,
wide ranges in rural incomes, and low levels of productivity.
The following articles present a brief summary of land tenure
patterns in individual Southeast Asian countries. While by
no means definitive, they sketch out the major problem areas
and ascribe government programs aimed at solving those
problems. Also attached is a bibliographic listing of material
that undoubtedly would prove useful in further research into
this highly interesting and complex subject.
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South Vietnam
Land tenure patterns in South Vietnam have changed
radically in recent years, primarily as a direct result of the
government-c, onsored Land-to-the-Tiller Program (LT'TT),
launched formally in March 1970. Prior to this it was
estimated that approximately 60.E of all rice and secondary
crop land was farmed by tenants under a historically
rigid system of land rents based on the normal productivity
of the land. The Mekong Delta -- the major crop-producing
area of the country ??- was described as one of the
world's worst areas in terms of the number of landless
farmers. Under Diem some land reform measures were undertaken
in thn late 1950's when large French-owned estates were
expropriated, but by the start of the war in 1965 little
land had been redistributed. The growth of Viet Cong
influence after 1965 further retarded govei:nment land
reform efforts. Absentee landlordism flourished and
subsequent GVN pacification was followed by landlords
returning to their lands. By 1969 land tenure patterns
were not significantly different from the late 1950s.
The LTTT called for the purchase over a 3 year period of
I million hectares of land (approximately one-third of total
cultivated land area) tenanted by some 400,000 peasant families
and owned by more than 15,000 landlords. The bill, revolutionary
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in conc apt, provided for tree distribution of land to tht
tenants of all privately-owned rice land not farmed by
the ownors. All now holdings were limited to 3 hectares per
family in the Delta and 1 hectare in the central lowlands.
Owners were allowed to retain as much as 15 hectares provided
they actually farmed the land.. Government compensation to
expropiated landowners was based on one-half of the total
value of the land's production over the five-year period,
1965-1969. Payment was made in cash (20%) and government
bonds at 10% interest, redeemable in equal increments over
an eight year period.
By its third anniversary the X.TTT had achLeved most
of its goals. Titles to over 1 million hectares of land
had been issued to more than 600,.QO0 families. Although the
distribution of compensation payments has lagged somewhat,
as of mid-1973 claims for over half of the land distributed
have been settled by the government. Most significantly,
land tenancy rates were reduced to virtually zero.
The war in the countryside caused large-scale population
migration to urban areas that greatly altered rural
traditional Vietnamese society and facilitated land reform
implementation. The success of the LTTT is also attributable
to the decreased attractiveness of farmland under uncertain
security conditions, the use of sophisticated surveying
techniques, aerial photography, and computerization of
administrative data. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect
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has been the general accopt nnce and lack of organized
resistance by former landocaners, as well as a minimum of
government, corruption in the program.
The economic impact of the LTTT is as yet impossible
to determine, particularly givon the fluidity of the
security situation in the countryside and the uncertainty
generated by the 1973 ceasefir.i. 'Production of rice
countrywide has neither declined nor increased significantly
in recent years; security conditions have probably been
a more important factor than landholding patterns. There
are some indications, however, that farmers are more
willing to adopt new techniques and to invest in more capital
inputs to increase productivity.
The efficient, relatively equitable, and fast implementation
of South Vietnam's land reform program has proved to be a
definite political asset for the Thieu government. The
program has been an exceedingly important instrument (perhaps
the most successful, but underpublicized GVN program since
the start of the war) for gaining political support in, rural
areas, particularly in the Delta. M.:)reover, the
Vietnamese Communists have had a difficult time countering
the general effectiveness of the LTTT. Land reform is no
longer a major tenet of Viet Cong propoganda, which, in itself,
is an excellent gauge of the success of Saigon's land
redistribution efforts.
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North Vietnam
The Communists initiated a land reform program immedia,~:oly
after they gained control of North Vietnam through the Geneva
Accords of 1954. The initial effort, however, was hastily
devised and lacked adequately trained cadre to carry it out.
Land distribution was arbitrary, and the chaos that followed
lad to thousands of deaths and a small rebellion that had to
be put loran in late 1956. At that point, Ho Chi Minh tem-
porarily stopped the program; a more ol.derly and rational
program was begun shortly thereafter. The first step was
to form mutual aid teams in which farm families were organized
to help each other on large projects. This was followed by
"low-level" cooperatives in which peasants contributed land
to a cooperative run by an executive committee. Farmers
paid taxes on the land they had contributed, and were in turn
paid a percentage of the cooperative profits based on the
size of their former landholdings. Around 1961 these farms
were converted to "high-level" cooperatives in which farmers
were paid solely on the basis of their labor. They no longer
paid taxes or had any claims to the land they previously owned,
but were encouraged to farm a small private plot on the
cooperative.
While the number of farmers in the coop system has
steadily risen -- more than 90% of the farmers are reported
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to be coup members -- the number of cooperatives has
declined because' of a decision made in the early 1960 's to
consolidate small cooperatives into larger, more economical
units. The larger coops would more easily be able to generate
capital for mechanization and adequate provision of the irri-
gation and chemical inputs required for the newer, high-yield
rice varieties now being grown. A severe lack of, trained
managers, and the difficulty in adapting highly personalized
rice cultivation to a cooperative scheme have thus far
prevented any rapid agricultural growth from taking place
beyond that initially' experienced in the late 1950's.
Hanoi recognizes the need to sustain individual initiative
even though it may r'in counter to regime ideals. In spite
of the government's commitment to socialized agriculture,
it permits about 5% of the cooperative land to be used as
private plots. On these private plots the peasants grow
food crops and engage in animal husbandry to supplement income
earned on the collective. Typically the plots provide 40%
of the peasants' income and supply about 90% of the country's
hogs as well as most of the leafy vegetables. As an incentive
for increasing productivity on cooperative land, the government
in March 1970 fixed grain. procurement norms at each cooperative
for a period of five years. This innovation not only set
more reasonable quotas compared to previous years but put any
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harvested surplus at the disposal of coop members, either
to consume or to sell on the free market. Thus far the
program has not resulted in a discernible increase in output,
no doubt because of disruptions from the war. In any event
it offers only partial solution to North Vietnam's agricultural
problem, which, in the long-term, requires higher yields from
limited land resources through irrigation and increased
fertilizer application.
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Cambodia and Laos
There are no significant land tenure problems in either
Cambodia or Laos. Cultivable land is in relative abundance.
Average holdings amount to 2 to 3 hectares -- about all that
is needed for ,subsistence. Somo larger farms exist in
Cambodia's Battambang Province. The absence of pressures on
the land and nominal colonial exploitation have prevented
the widespread development of tenant-landlord situations.
The agricultural sector in Came -I,ia is currently in a state
of flux, however, because of continuing military activity.
Large numbers of peasants have abandoned farms for safer urban
areas; consequently, land pressure around Phnom Penh and the
provincial capitals is probably intense. Presumably, many,
farmers will return to the countryside when the fighting ceases.
Land reform has taken place in Communist regions of Cambodia,
to the extent that abandoned and large landholdings have been
divided up among peasants under Communist control, and rudi-
mentary collective farms and agricultural and marketing coops
have been established. In Laos, the Communists control few
important agricultural areas, but it is assumed that collective/
cooperative arrangements exist there also.
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Philippines
Land tenancy in the Philippines has long been a
critical. problem. A deeply entrenched landlord class has
maintained a near-feudal structure in the agricultural sector
and strongly resisted government attempts at meaningful refoxm.
At the turn of the century the countrywide tenancy rate was
below 20'x, but by the 1960s it was estimated to be over 50%.
Conditions in central Luzon -- the largest and most fertile
agricultural land -- were even worse with some areas reaching
a tenancy rate of 90%. The existing land tenure system
resulted in a majority of the nation's farmers being in,a
perpetual state of indebtedness, a cycle almost impossible to
break due to-institutional factors favoring the landlord.
Moreover, those areas most in need of reform were.,also 'the
centers of Communist activity and thus required positive
government actions.
In 1963 the government adopted an Agricultural Land
Reform Code that envisaged a gradual restructuring of the
existing system. The major goal was to establish owner-operated
farms of economic family size and to free farmers from long-
standing institutional restraints. Progress of the program,
however, has been disappointing. The legislation was not
adequately prepared and large loopholes and inefficient public
service procedures enabled landowners to retain their hold on
the land.
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The government reaffirmed its commitment to land
reform in late 1972 when President Marcos decreed a program
to redistribute- some two million hectaros of rice and corn
land that will affect about 1 million families. Scheduled
for completion in 1975, the now program seeks to distribute
3-5 hectare lots to family units with government compensation
to former owners. The program gave priority first to
large holdings of 100 hectares or more. Subsequently,
holdings of 24 hectares and above were brought into the
program. Total land now available for distribution is 540,000
hectares.
A major stumbling block in the current land reform
program has been the slowness and method of government coin-
pensation. As smaller holdings are broken up and brought
into the program, the financial burden to the, government has
escalated substantially. Moreover, Marcos is faced with
alienating smaller landowners, many of whop, are civil servants
and military officers, both important elements in his political
base. This group, now constituting an estimated 350,000
landowners, is less willing to accept long-term compensation
arrangements than the larger land holders. Additionally, the
ackninistrative mechanism has not significantly improved over
earlier years, and the government is already facing attempts
on the part of many landlords to force tenants off the land.
The success of the program, consequently, will depend on the
government's determination to demand full landlord cooperation.
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Indonesia
Land tenure patterns in Indonesia are characterized
by small farm units, averaging about 1 hectare for the
country as a whole. Intensive population pressure on
Java-Madura and Bali -- where roughly 70% of the total
population lives -- coupled with good land and available
irrigation have resulted in even a smaller average farm
size of 0.6-0.7 hectares, well below that of other Southeast
Asian countries. A 1963 census indicated that of 12.3
million small farms, about 4.4 million were either farmed
by sharecroppers or tenants under some type of lea'3e
relationship.
In the early 1960s Sukarno initiated a land reform
program aimed at abolishing the landlord class and decreasing
the number of landless peasants. The law permited ownership
of no more than five hectares in densely populated regions,
but allowed somewhat more in sparsely populated regions
as a means of encouraging resettlement to the Outer Islands.
While not denying property rights, the thrust of
the program was to break up larger holdings and to distribute
the excess of established maximum holding size to landless
farmers. By 1968 an estimated 1,000,000 hectares of land
were distributed to as many families. Due to lack of
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information it in difficult to determine the evolution of
the program beyond that clato. It nppoara that about half of
the band distributed wan owned by the contrtal government
and resulted in little a1.toration of larger holdings.
In recant years, land reform has not been a major issue
with the government and the: program has generally lost
momentum.
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Malayata
Malaysia does not have a land reform program that
ontaila the redistribution of land ownership. Rather, the
major thrust of government efforts had cantered on expending
areas under cultivation and resattloment of farmers as
part of two five-year plans, the second of which is now
in progress (1971-75).
The majority of this land reclamation activity has
been carried out by a government agency, the Federal Land
Development Authority (F:,DA) . Although the first five-
year plan (1966-70) assiUned responsibility for the land
development program to both the public and private sectors,
the private sector fell considerably short of its quota,
while the FDLA exceeded its goal by some 25%. Sind its
inception in 1956, the FLDA has developed some 125,000
hectares and settled nearly 21,000 families., most of which
was accomplished during the first five-year plan.
Operation of the FLDA is somewhat unique and has met
with a considerable degree of success. The Authority develops
the land in lots of 4 hectares and plants the crop before
the families are settled. Families for settlement are chosen
with a view toward sustaining productivity, and the work
performance is rigidly controlled by the government. The
percent of return which accrues to the tenant family varies
with the amount and market price of commodities produced.
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The workers build up eroditu with the government depending
upon their productivity and eventually gain ownership to
the plot they have boon cultivating, usually in about
fifteen years.
The FLDA program also allows the government the option
of directing newly developed land into the production of
' commodities which are in high demand in both domestic
and world markets. Most of the land developed during
the first five-year plan was cultivated with palm oil and
rubber; the objectives of the second plan are of similar
outline with a projected overall growth in agricultural
output of 8% per year. Although the second five-year plan
places greater reliance on the private sector for land
development than the first, the FLDA will still be the
prime motive force in this venture that is expected to
develop an additional 110,000 hectares and to settle another
24,000 families.
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Thai1nnndd
In contrast to other 8outhoast Arian ccuntrien, problams
of land tenure in Thailand are not particularly pro',aing.
Th? last agricultural census in 1963 revealed that nearly
83% of farmers owned all or part of the land they cultivated.
Tenancy Is virtually nonexistent in the insurgent-troubled
northeast. It is more prevalent in the central plain,
where between ono-third and one half of paddy fields are
ton ant-opo rated.
Traditionally farmers have been able to obtain land
merely by clearing and cultivating it. This system
prevailed to some extent even after official titles were
intituted at the turn of the century. Up to recent
times, farmers in many areas have been able to secure land
rather easily by complying with liberal and often-ignored
guvernmrnt regulations. As a result only 22% of the land
is held under titles that confer less than full ownership.
Fragmentation of land holdings, averaging only about
4 hectares is size, has been an important factor in retarding
the implementation of modern methods of farming. The introduction
of new techniques in Thai. agriculture has been rather slow
and traditional methods of agriculture still predominate.
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The governmon% affectively controls the agricultural
sector through its virtual monopoly of the procousing and
marketing of agricultural products. Although most agricul-
tural land in still in private hands, there are no serious
land tenure problems. Prior to World War II, however, nearly
half of the delta .:1.co area was hold by the Chottyars (private
money -landors), who provided the bulk of agricultural credit
and wore thus able to acquire vast holdings of land through
defaulted loans. Since independence in 1947, most of the
Chottyars wene driven from the country and private money-
lending was prohibited.
The average size of landholdings in Burma is a little
less than four hectares. About 14% of the farms are less than
two hectares and about 14% greater: than eight hectares. The
Land Nationalization Act sets a legal ceiling of 20 hectares
for privatnly owned landholdings. At present agricultural
cultivation accounts for 12% of total land area, and con-
siderable opportunities exist for land. expansion. Despite
the continuing harassment from insurgent groups, the government
has reclaimed a considerable amount of land that fell into
disuse during World World War II.
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Book a
Land Reformn Bib lio Za2hI
Jrnuten, Michael, Land Ratorm and the Quality of Pronaarnc1aa
in Rural Vietnam Santa Monica, Cal Lorn a, Ran
Corporation, J.970.
Dori, Ronald P. Land Rrsform in Japan, London, New York,
Oxford Univo E3i ty Press, 1959.
Gadalla, Saad M. Land Reform in Relation to Social
Development: El.ypt, Columbia, N1 s ours, Un versity
of Missouri 13R.-ss, 1962.
Heath, Dwight B. Land Reform and Social Revolution in
Bolivia, New York, Praeger, 1959
Kish, George, Land Reform in Ita, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
University of Michigan ? 1966 .
Menclova, Jarmila, Land Reform in Czechoslovakia, Praka,
Czechoslovakia, State Agricultural Pub 1u ng House, 1963.
Rudulph, Charles C. The Land Reform Program in Iran,
Washington DC, American University,, 1971.
Senior, Charles 0. Land Reform and Democracy, (Mexico),
Gainesville, Florida University of Florida Press, 1958.
Standford Research Institute, Land Reform in Vietnam, Menlo
Park, California, ttandford r. niver:iit y, 1968.
United D'ations, Land Reform; Defects in hgi._arian Structu* e
as Obstacles to Economic Development, New York, UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 1954.
United Nations, L? end Reform in Italy, Rome, UN Food and
Agricultural. Organization, 1961.
Warriner, Doreen, Land Reform in Principle and P^-actice, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1961.
Warriner, Doreen,- Land Reform and Development in the Middle
East, London, Neork, Royal ns i ute o in erna . nai
A71-
airs, 1962.
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 Yoh, Kung Chin, nand Reform and the Revolu'G.Lc.:t1ttr:
A Rnvinw of Mao s Cpnncepis and Uocrz.o, Santa Monica,
G alFoz nia, Rand Corp ora4ion, 1971.
Articles
Duua].dito, Rufo, "The Constitutionality of the Security of
Tenure of Agricultural Tenants and Lessees", (Philippines),
Southens', Asian Quartazll, Vol. 5 Number 2, 1970, pp.23-33
Estrella, Conrado, "New Guidolincz' for Land Reform",
(Philippines), Solidarity, Vol. 6, Number 7, July
1971, pp. 2-12
Flores, Edmundo, "The Cc.xept of Land Reform", Philippine
Economic Journal, Vol. 9, Number 1, 1970, pp. 109-T 4
McCoy, Al, "Land Reform as Counterrevolution: U3 Foreign
Policy and the Tenant Farmers of Asia," Bulletin for
Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 3, Number 1, 1971,
pp. 14-49
Munoz, Angelina, "The Social Aspects of Land Reform",
Solidarity, Vol. 5, Number 7, July 1970, pp- 80-93
.k Bank Monthly Review,
"Agricultural Land Reform," Ban k.9
Vol. 12, Number 10, Oct 1971, pp. 365-36
"Vietnam: Politics, Land Reform and Development in the
Countryside", Asian Survey, Vol. 10, Number 8, August
1970, pp. 627-751.
Utrecht, E., "Land Reform in Indonesia", Bulletin of.
Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 5 Number 3, November
1969, pp. 71-88.
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Under contract by USATJ, Vietnam, Control Data Corporation
has complotcd a series of detailed studies of the land reform
program in South Vietnam. These include:
"The Impact of the Land to the Tiller Program
in the Mekong Delta", December 1972.
"Farmers Wi:o Own Their Land and the Land to the
Tiller Program", May 1971
"Land Ownership and Tenancy Among Village and
Hamlet Officials in the Delta", March 1970
"Soldiers and the Land to the Tiller Program
in Military Region 1, Military Region 3, and
Military Region 4" (separate reports) August
1971, November 1971, and December 1971.
"Small Landlords' Dependence on Rent Income
in Vietnam", October 1970.
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