A “ticking time bomb” of agricultural leases is leading to farmers being evicted from their fields and threatens the future of Maltese farming, an activist has warned. 

Moviment Graffitti said that the government should intervene to help prevent such evictions, which have gathered pace after a Constitutional court ruled last year that indefinite-period leases of such land were unlawful. 

Developers and landowners have welcomed that ruling, but its immediate effect has been to threaten the livelihoods of farmers who now face the prospect of being kicked off land that they have worked for years. 

In a statement on Saturday, Graffitti said evictions were happening “every week” and were accelerating. 

“We have received reports of some landowners and speculators abusing the fact that many farmers are not aware of their legal rights,” the NGO said as it argued that the problems were invalidating plans to encourage young people to become farmers, as they could not afford to buy or rent farmland. 

“While most sectors have received aid of some sort, including contractors who have been given funds to upgrade their equipment, farmers have not been as fortunate as they battle every day for their own livelihood,” Graffitti said as it called for the government to offer farmers financial assistance. 

Such aid could be linked to shifting to more environmentally-friendly methods, it suggested, and the agricultural sector also needed to be audited to determine who is genuinely a farmer and what challenges they face. 

Safeguarding local agriculture was vital from a food security standpoint, it argued, and would become even more important as climate change and other external shocks added threats to the security of our food supply.