judicial

Land reform bill makes farmers uneasy

David Mesa/LA PRENSA

high stakes: Agriculture associations such as the Asociación de Productores de Maíz and the Asociación Nacional de Ganaderos worry that the reform bill favors the state, and may dispossess farmers of their traditional land rights.1053117

The proposed land reform bill being debated in the Comisión de Asuntos Agropecuarios of the Asamblea Nacional has the potential to become a headache for farmers and ranchers.

The reform calls for sweeping changes to the rights of land ownership, a matter that Supreme Court Justice Harley Mitchell has been “distorted” in the interest of those involved in speculation and hoarding land. The Órgano Judicial proposed the bill.

Among the reform’s opponents is the Asociación Nacional de Ganaderos (Anagan), which has voiced concerns about the first chapters of the bills that define agricultural principles, the legal and economic scope of agricultural property and agricultural businesses.

“The law says that property is subject to the common good and the good of society and based on that they’ve placed a series of rules which, if implemented, would end up making us owners of nothing at all,” said Euclides Díaz, executive secretary of Anaga.

The main agricultural unions have already begun participating in the negotiation process opened by the Comisión this week as part of the bill’s first debate in the Asamblea. That process will resume next Tuesday, July 10.

“We hope that this does not make it to a second debate, and as it stands, we have to make many changes to the project so that the bill doesn’t end up harming the industry,” said Valentín Domínguez, president of the Asociación de Productores de Maíz.

The Asociación especially objects to the new powers which would be assumed by the state in the case of unproductive land or crops of little demand in certain situations.

“We view all of this with suspicion,” said Domínguez. “The [changes] are neither clear nor well-defined. The tell us, for example, that when a property is not being “properly used,” that can pass into the state control. Or if I'm growing corn and there’s a shortage of rice, I must convert my land to rice cultivation. There are many anomalies in it.”

Alexander Araúz, president of the Asociación de Productores de Arroz de Chiriquí (Apach), also expressed reservations about the bill’s obtuse wording.

“In regards to land substitution issues, doubt remains as to whether the person has the right of land possession or whether it can be claimed by any government decree. There is a problem of legal security,” warned Araúz.