Farmer groups want government support for agricultural land leases amid threat of eviction

Farming NGOs are pleading with government to protect the land leases of tenant farmers against landowners looking to turn a quick profit.

The plea was made by Mario Cardona, founding member of Koperattiva Rurali Manikata, and Malcolm Borg, coordinator of Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi, in a joint opinion piece published by the Times of Malta.

“In a capitalist world and a market-based economy, everything has its price tag and its value follows the principle of demand and supply," the two wrote in their piece.

They said that farmers are being seen as second-class producers, with their "workshops", being their fields, seen as open spaces up for grabs. 

"Unfortunately, in recent months, the plight of our food producers has reached new lows. The courts have been evicting tenant farmers from their land on the request of private landowners," they write.

They were reacting to news that the Agricultural Leases Board has begun evicting farmers from the land they were tilling, as a result of a constitutional court case in November 2020, which deemed that the present law that protected farmers went against the Constitution and denied landowners their fundamental rights.

Cardona and Borg warn that landowners have “little appetite for the farmers’ plight” and are hell-bent on using farming land to turn a profit by selling it on the market.

"Whereas land for farmers is the sacred foundation on which their crops grow to feed their families, land for the market is an exchangeable asset to be traded.” 

They referred to the recent rent reforms, where government stood in to help families living under pre-1995 housing leases by paying the additional rental costs families were expected to face as a result of constitutional challenges to Malta’s rent laws.

“We are urging the government to act again with the necessary urgency to protect the land leases of tenant farmers. This is for the sake of food sovereignty, food security, cutting down on carbon miles, protecting the rural landscape and safeguarding rural communities and culture,” they wrote.

Earlier this month, a coalition of 18 farming organisations called on the government to find an immediate solution to the problem or Malta will face an "exodus of farmers".

The coalition said this was a hazardous situation that could lead to the "exodus of farmers, resulting in huge social and environmental impacts".

READ ALSO: PN calls for urgent action to save farmers threatened by court ruling on agricultural leases