Small farmers exempted from cesspit obligation

Small crop growers and small animal husbandry farmers will be exempted from some obligations related to the implementation of the EU’s nitrate directive which deals with the nitrate contamination by fertilisers and animal remains that are negatively affecting Malta’s ground water bodies.

A new legal notice makes sure that they will no longer be required to build manure clamps or cesspits, to cover passageways, to keep records and to have a fertilizer plan.

Exempted animal husbandry farms include farms with fewer than 100 layer or broiler hens, farms with fewer than 25 rabbits and those having up to two pigs, five sheep or three bovines.

All farmers owning less than half a tumolo of land (600 square metres) are exempted from preparing a fertilizer plan and from keeping updated management records on matters like “the quantity and type of fertilizer moved on or off the holding”.

Farmers who spoke to this newspaper described these requirements as quite demanding on small farmers.

The new rules may actually encourage smallholdings instead of encouraging the consolidation of the multitude of small farms and pieces of cultivated land into a number of larger farms, to increase both competitiveness and strengthen environmental controls.