Some Aspects of Tenancy Reform Measures in Southeast Asia

Abstract

THE TENANCY SYSTEM prevailing in most countries of Southeast Asia has often been considered unsatisfactory. The proportion of tenants and sharecroppers in the total agrarian population is high and a sizeable percentage of farmland is worked by tenants and sharecroppers. Tenancy, per se, is not intrinsically an unsatisfactory form of tenure, provided rents are not and security of tenure and related institutional support services are available.' These preconditions, however, are generally lacking: tenancy systems in the region tend to be characterized by excessive rentals, insecure tenure, and ineffective support services. Moreover, cultivators, who farm land under various forms of tenancy, ordinarily hold it on a customary basis with no legal agreement defining their rights and obligations. Observation of the role tenancy changes have played in a number of differing environmental conditions has helped focus attention on the improvement of tenancy systems to generate increases in agricultural production, influence the distribution of income, and encourage greater political stability in rural areas. The contractual and customary relationships between landlords and tenants exercise a considerable influence on both production and income distribution in agriculture. With insecure tenure and with no guarantees that improved farm practices will be compensated, incentives to invest in farm improvements to intensify producion will be blunted and agricultural development