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Communications |
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Speech delivered by the Hon Dr Francis Agius, Parliamentary Secretary responsible for Agriculture and Fisheries, at the Dolmen Hotel Bugibba on Land re-parceling. |
Date:
16/05/2006
It is my pleasure to address you during this seminar, which is discussing the Land Re-parcelling. This twinning project is being financed under the national pre-accession programme 2003 with a total budget of 90,000 Euros.
It is important to note that a significant feature of Maltese agriculture is land fragmentation. In all market economies farm size structure is one of the main determinants of agricultural efficiency, it also has important environmental implications. Land consolidation and re-parcelling is, in the Maltese context, an extremely important and complex issue and one which all stakeholders are extremely sensitive to.
According to the 2001 National Statistics Office Census on Agriculture, the highest percentage of Agricultural land is less than 1 ha in size and this accounts for 58.4% of the total agricultural land. Land between 1 and 5 ha represent 36.9%, with the remaining size classes over 5 ha only accounting for 4.7 % of agricultural land. The situation is even more pronounced in Gozo where 67.9% of all agricultural land is less than l ha in size.
In Malta it is the custom that upon the farmer’s demise the land is usually divided equally between sons and daughters with the result of further land fragmentation. According to the 2001 National Statistics Office Census on Agriculture 73.9% of all agricultural land holdings have less than 1 ha of agricultural land in the Maltese islands and in Gozo this percentage is somewhat higher with nearly 82 %. The average size of a holding in the Maltese islands is 0.876 ha. In addition to small size problems, it is very hard to find a holding whose parcels are not scattered; sometimes the distance between parcels is considerable. This may lead to parcels, previously well cultivated and productive which may be left abandoned or less cultivated by heirs not interested in agriculture but who insist for their share of land.
This is the case for both farmer owners and leased agricultural land. There is also virtually no legal agricultural land-leasing market operating. The 1967 Agricultural Leases Act was designed to protect tenants and their descendants from eviction, and it is extremely effective in this regard. Maltese tenancy laws also make it extremely difficult to increase rents and the inheritance law also give rights to descendants to each claim a proportion of the holding. Time series data indicate that farm size is decreasing over time. This fossilised land market is also one of the factors, which led to a rapidly ageing farming population. It important to note that the 2001 Agricultural Census data indicate that more than 40% of farmers are over 60 years old and barely 10% of farmers are under 40 years old.
The small farm size structure, the micro parcel size structure and the rigidity of the land market all have negative agro-technical, agro-economic and environmental consequences.
This project is to draw up a comprehensive package of actions among which are guidelines with factual hands on solutions to assist and organise land consolidation and re-parcelling so as to address the present situation of minute agricultural land holding size. This will result in a means of improving efficiency and maintaining the limited but vital role of the rural sector.
The results that are aimed to be achieved in this project are:
A position paper on the scenario of the status, viability and sustainability with specific reference to parcel size and farm age profiles and other current influencing factors after liaising with all stakeholders and government departments.
It is of great satisfaction for me to note that a number of stakeholders are participating in this seminar such as:
• Officials from the Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment, including the Rural Development Dept. and the Dept. of Agriculture
• Representatives of MEPA
• Representatives of Lands Dept.
• Representatives of the National Statistics Office (NSO)
• Officials from the Ministry for Gozo
• A number of farmers
• Representatives for Producers’ Organisations and Co-operatives
I am sure that the Dutch experts are now capable to get a better idea of the local situation with regards to Land fragmentation and upcoming issues. I also noted that a draft report on the current situation was compiled by the Dutch experts and a second meeting with MRAE officials was held on 5 – 6th April 2006. On this proposal, it was decided to organise two workshops, one in Gozo and another in Malta, for which we are attending today, in order to discuss this draft proposal and also to take up ideas and do brain storming sessions with the local stakeholders for a more practical approach.
A second round of workshops is envisaged for the beginning of July and afterwards by the end of July 2006, a closing seminar will be organised in order to publish the results of the whole study together with the recommendations.
I conclude by thanking all here present for all the work achieved and I look forward that we will meet for the final seminar in the near future.
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