When Angelo and Anthony Caruana were informed by the authorities that the land they had tilled all their life was being reduced to one-seventh of its current size, they felt like a part of them had died.
The Lands Authority informed them that the land, on lease from the government, was being split between seven siblings, all heirs of a farmer who died more than 20 years ago. According to their legal procurator Peter Paul Zammit, theirs is another case in a series that threatens local food security.
Angelo, now 73, has lived off the land, measuring 35 tumoli, for some 40 years, following in his father Wenzu’s steps, he told Times of Malta, adding that his son Anthony tilled the land with him for as long as he can remember.
He said Wenzu had stopped working the land and, together with another sibling, Angelo continued tilling it when their father died in 1998.
“I used to work in construction and farming but gave up the former 40 years ago when my father Wenzu started feeling the brunt of old age.
'It's all we know: we put all our savings in the land'
“I tilled it with my son Anthony, investing in machinery, regular maintenance, and an extensive irrigation system. It’s all we know: we put all our savings in the land, and we’re now lost for words. Our livelihood and life as I know it vanished overnight,” Angelo told Times of Malta.
Angelo was in 2020 informed by the Lands Authority that the agricultural land was being split between him and six other siblings, all Wenzu’s children.
They received official notice of the split this year, and Angelo told Times of Malta that they were now left with only three tumoli to till, as a large part of the land he had been allocated hosted carob and prickly pear trees. A farmer needed at least 15 tumoli to turn a profit, he noted.
According to their legal procurator, the Lands Authority’s decision to split the land between seven siblings, when only one is registered as a farmer who works this land, and two actually till it, goes against the Agricultural Leases Act (chapter 199), which acknowledges that after a tenant’s death, the tenancy is transferred to that person who had been working the agricultural land with the deceased, or for him.
'A farmer needs at least 15 tumoli to turn a profit'
It also goes against the Lands Authority Act stipulating that the authority must make the best use of all land, he said. And although a 2008 court decision noted that the Caruana heirs should split the value of the land, this same decision confirmed that land is transferred in line with chapter 199, and therefore, to whoever tilled it a year before the former tenant died.
Additionally, he said, the land is owned by the government, not the farmer, hence compensation of value is not the farmer’s remit.
When the Lands Authority had first called in the siblings to split the land in 2020,
Angelo was not assisted by a legal representative, and although he eventually signed a map showing the split land, he did not sign a document agreeing to the split, he added.
Zammit, himself hailing from a family of farmers, told Times of Malta this was another case of lack of safeguarding of farmers who have a track record of tilling land.
Questions sent to the Lands Authority remain unanswered.