Something new is coming. KOWR is thinking about repealing the ban on the sale of agricultural land of two hectares and more.
During the event organized on April 16 this year. press conference at KOWR, among many different topics, the issue of the “frozen” sale of land from the Agricultural Property Resource of the State Treasury was also raised. More specifically, it turned out that the new management of KOWR was thinking about repealing the ban on the sale of agricultural land of two hectares and above.
It’s time to think about assessing the functioning of the sales ban
The current legal status and the role of KOWR in land transactions were recalled by Tomasz Ciodyk, deputy director general of KOWR.
Currently, the ZWRSP has 1 million 300 thousand. ha of land. Of this, 1 million hectares are leased, and approximately 183,000 hectares are available for distribution. ha.
– When it comes to resource management, the breakthrough moment was 2016 (April) when legislation was introduced that significantly changed the issues of privatization and land management. A special act was also passed which introduced a ban on the sale of a large part of land. Well, starting from 2016 and for the next ten years, KOWR cannot sell agricultural properties with an area of two hectares or more; only in exceptional situations, with the consent of the Minister of Agriculture, such a sale may take place. Leasing has become the basic form of farming, largely carried out mainly to expand family farms, said Tomasz Ciodyk.
He also quoted numbers that were supposed to illustrate the declining role of sales: in the years 2008-2015, from the resources of the then Agricultural Property Agency, an average of 110,000 were sold. ha of land per year, in the years 2017-2023 only 4,600 ha per year.
– So the primacy of leasing for expanding family farms (…) is the foundation on which we currently operate – added Tomasz Ciodyk.
He noted that now the main problem in the area of land management is the takeover and development of land returned from expiring leases: in total, it will amount to PLN 80,000. ha, of which 50 thousand this year and next year. ha (we will write about this issue in a separate article).
Later in his statement, director Ciodyk suggested an equally interesting idea:
– I think that we can think about assessing the functioning of the ban on the sale of agricultural land from two hectares and above, which I mentioned, what the consequences are and whether we should continue to maintain this ban in this form or not. We will analyze it, perhaps we will submit some future proposals to the minister, said Ciodyk.
A political decision is needed
Later in the conference, when asked about a possible change in the regulations on the ban on the sale of land exceeding 2 ha, the director general of KOWR also spoke.
– These were political decisions. Both the Act on the Exclusion of Land from Leases of 2011 and the Act of 2016, which decided that leasing rather than selling land was a priority. Nevertheless, this sale takes place, but without the land limit of two hectares. So this is a political question and if there is a parliamentary majority that decides that these rules should be changed and the sale of (larger – editors’ note) land should also be allowed, then it will be implemented – said Henryk Smolarz.
– We see a lot of unnecessary work, he continued. – Because 40,000 decisions and matters that we deal with, where the law, even though it has been loosened a bit, is still very binding, where buyers exchange plots of over 30 ares among themselves, but also in cooperation with someone, and all this must go through the entire KOWR mechanism, and later, in some cases, to the Ministry of Agriculture. We see no justification. Especially since the vast majority of them are positive decisions. This only imposes an obligation on the farmer to submit an application, apply, take deeds and so on. So we will forward these types of suggestions to our Minister of Agriculture. Of course, the legislative initiative is no longer on our side. But we will certainly submit a number of such shortcomings that we see for correction and we will cooperate in developing these solutions.
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