Agriculture Minister: Ministry Moving Towards Digitization of State Land Files

Agriculture Minister: Ministry Moving Towards Digitization of State Land Files

October 06, 2020:- The $500 million agricultural stimulus, provisioned for in the 2020/2021 Budget, will assist the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries in funding a series of projects, including the digitization of State land files so as to ensure a more timely distribution of agricultural parcels. So said the Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Senator the Honourable Clarence Rambharat, as he addressed seven (7) recipients of a Lease Letter Distribution Ceremony at the Ministry’s Head Office earlier today.

Minister Rambharat also lamented that persons had to wait “an average of 30 years” to have their leases “straightened out” and indicated that with the digitization of State land files, it would vastly improve and accelerate the process. He said that approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 State land files had been digitized over the last five (5) years and with the implementation of the digitization process, the Ministry’s expectation for the remaining 20,000 files will be (2) years.

The Agriculture Minister also reminded recipients of an earlier statement which he said about persons who would have received leases to use state land for agriculture purposes but have not done so. These individuals he said, are in breach and as such, the Agriculture Ministry will be moving aggressively to reclaim those lands and to subsequently have them re-distributed for their intended purpose.

The lease letters distributed today, conveyed Cabinet’s approval to grant, standard agricultural leases for an initial period of thirty (30) years and will enable recipients to engage financial entities and State agencies in respect to their agricultural parcels.

 

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