Quarante ans d'évolution du foncier dans le périmètre irrigué de Nong Waï, Thaïlande du Nord-Est : de l'espérance à l'impasse.

In the 1960s, the Thai government implemented a rural development program that included the extension of major irrigation schemes in the Northeast. The article deals with the evolution of land use within the Nong Wai irrigation system, which was the first to be put into service under this program. On the basis of surveys conducted over 40 years in a village close to the city of Khon Kaen, it shows that irrigation was a reason for optimism among farmers during the 1980s. Cultivated areas doubled and the concomitant Green revolution significantly increased rice fields yields. However, since then, several factors have combined to hinder the purchase and intergenerational transfer of land. A process of disagrarianization without depeasantization is in progress where land remains a capital asset rather than being a factor of production. Agriculture is no longer the primary reason for the transfer of ownership of irrigated land in the peri-urban village as it is increasingly converted into residential land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]