Havana, Cuba.-Modifications to the policy on delivery of idle lands in usufruct, known today, include the increase from 13.4 to 26.84 hectares the top area given to natural persons who apply for the first time.
That regulation establishes a minimum of 26.84 hectares for the applications destined to livestock raising and crops, informed in a press conference the director of Soils and Land Control of the Ministry of Agriculture, Eddy Soca.
The modification also increases to 67.10 hectares the máximum authorized, as long as conditions allow it and to facilitate the application of technologies and achieve competitive results, added the official.
Soca informed that between 2008 and 2016 the total given in usufruct reached one million 917 thousand hectares of idle land, 31 percent of all farm land, of these one million 733 thousand were given to 222 thousand natural persons. At the end of 2016 there were still 894 thousand hectares of idle land.
He explained the recent modifications look to solve aspects that still limit its application and facilitates the compliance of the directives of the Economic and Social Policy of the Communist Party approved by the 7th Congress of that organization.
Soca mentioned among other changes, the authorization to natural persons that receive lands or have already received them to be able to link or be part of agricultural enterprises, sugar or forest ones.
The new regulations also include the handing of idle lands of commercial cattle raising for breeding and fattening purposes until its use is demanded, according to the cattle developing program. In that sense, he said no land destined to dairy production will be given, because those farms have their own program.
Modifications also include the extending of terms of the usufruct for all natural persons from 10 to 20 years, extendable successively for the same years and for legal entities indefinitely (at present for 25 years) as long as they comply with pacted obligations.
Regulations also bind landholders to plant animal fodder, among other aspects, until covering the amount of feed for the cattle they possess and add as cause for the extinction of usufruct, the use of illegal financing.
Besides the obligation that landholders have to be directly linked to the land, Soca mentioned other advantages, as the authorization to construct farm facilities in up to three percent of the area in usufruct for farm and forest products that require them.
He referred that taxes included in the Tax Law concerning the use, possession and idleness of the land will be gradually applied.
The information given has the precedent of the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on June 28, where it was announced that
modifications were approved for the handing out in usufruct of idle state lands, which will boost their implementation.