© Getty Images/Olivier Cirendini
A paddy field near Fort Dauphin, Madagascar.
It is a cry of despair launched by the Malagasy peasants. In a press release, signed by 164 organizations, the representatives of the rural world call on the President of the Republic and the international community one last time so that the law 2021-016 on land, passed last June almost without consultation, is not promulgated. .
From our correspondent in Antananarivo,
« We Malagasy farmers are afraid of this law. We fear that we are no longer safe because we will no longer have the opportunity or the means to obtain land titles. It’s too expensive ! »
At the end of the phone, Haingo, rice-fish farmer in the Bongolava region. For this member of the national family farming committee, the new land law promises to be catastrophic for millions of citizens.
With it, finished the land certificate, a legal document that the population might obtain from the municipalities at an affordable cost and within a reasonable time: “ This law is a step backwards on what was decided in 2006. From one day to the next, from now on, the State will be able to take our land to sell them, for example, to investors or mining operations. »
According to Eric Raparison, national coordinator of the SIF (Solidarity of Interveners in Land) platform, the state is playing a dangerous game by excluding the majority of citizens, and in particular peasants, from access to land ownership. “ The state tries to play the role of police by robbing people of the land they occupy, whereas the texts before [loi de 2006 nldr] had encouraged people to occupy the land and develop it to own it. It is a step backwards, even more than what colonization itself caused! »
Fear of widespread corruption
According to statistics, in Madagascar, 600,000 young people enter the labor market each year. Today, the secondary and tertiary sectors do not create enough jobs to absorb the new arrivals. 80% of these young people therefore turn to the agricultural sector.
« So if these young people will not have access to land at any time in their life, what are they going to do? For them, the land is the first working tools. This new law prohibits access to land. »
Another concern on the part of land stakeholders: the announced return of a virtual monopoly in land management by the central power. Exit, therefore, the decentralization adopted in 2006. On what criteria will the State allocate or not its land? Nothing is very clear at the moment, so that many see here the gateway to widespread corruption… and ruthless for the poorest.
End of decentralization
« The creation of the land office at the level of the municipalities [service foncier décentralisé mis en place en 2006, ndlr], has enabled many of us to obtain a land certificate. It was fast, close and financially accessible ”Explains farmer Haingo. « With the abolition of the land offices, I will have to travel 200 km to be able to take the steps to obtain a title. It is very expensive and time consuming. »
As a reminder, if a land certificate costs around 10 to 15 euros and can be obtained within 6 months from a land office, the land title costs him around 600 euros and sometimes takes ten years to be issued. by the central administration. In the eyes of the law, the two documents had the same legal value.
Last hope for farmers: that the President of the Republic repeals this law, described as ” antieconomic This week by the World Bank.
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