Govt mulls redistributing neglected plots to landless

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is considering taking over or increasing taxes on neglected farm and plantation land, and distributing the plots to the landless as part of an agrarian reform program, an official says.

Lutfi Ibrahim Nasution, head of the State Land Agency, said on Tuesday the idea arose in response to the growing number of landless in the country, as well as the fact that many concession holders neglected their plots.

"The state awards concessions either for plantations or farming, not to be neglected. It is not fair if the land is neglected while there are millions of landless laborers who are ready to cultivate the land," he said after a seminar on land reform organized by the Indonesian Farmers Associations (HKTI).

According to an agriculture census in 2003, the number of landless laborers is increasing by 1.7 percent each year. In 2003, they numbered 24.4 million, up from 20.5 million in 1993. The agriculture census is taken by the government every 10 years.

Over 2,000 companies currently control concessions covering 4.6 million hectares of lands across the country.

Lutfi said concession holders were required to use the land for farming or plantations to maintain and support the country's food supply.

He said the government was considering awarding some 22 square meters of farmland to each landless laborer.

"We might take over neglected concessions or impose more taxes on concession holders to finance this project. But we are still discussing this," Lutfi said.

The laborers would not get the land free, but would have to pay for it in installments. And the plots could not be sold for any purpose other than farming. Lutfi said he hoped the program could be applied in densely populated areas.

He also said the government was considering placing limits on the amount of land companies could control.

"I know of a company that owns more than 260,000 hectares of land, which is equivalent to 22 times the size of the town of Bogor town (in West Java), while the amount of farmland continues to decrease due to rampant development," he said.

The government, Lutfi said, was considering limiting companies' land ownership to 40,000 hectares of land per province.

HKTI chairman Siswono Yudohusodo suggested the government ban the conversion of farmland into housing or other non-farming purposes, particularly in Java and Bali.

"The government must prohibit farmers from selling their land for non-farming purposes," he said.

Siswono fears the loss of farmland to housing complexes, roads, dams and other infrastructure could eventually leave the country unable to meet its food demands.

"It would be a blow to small farmers, whose numbers increase every year, and the whole nation if we had to import food," he said.

Indonesia faces massive problems regarding the distribution of land among small farmers, wealthy farmers and the private sector.

And uncertainty over land ownership has led to disputes between landless laborers and corporate land owners, a situation that has been neglected for over three decades.