By Editorial EL PILÓN.
Caesar’s department It is one of the territories with the most requests from peasants before the National Land Agency (ANT), an entity attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that increasingly serves more through the WhatsApp social network or by email for free and without intermediaries.
EL PILÓN spoke with Antonio Calvoterritorial director of the ANT, about the procedures, the progress in the agrarian reform and the challenges facing the rural sector of the department of Cesar.
How have technologies impacted the land application process made by the interested population?
The use and familiarization of people with the applications have allowed all the pressure of the demand that existed on our work team has decreased by 80% because it is easier for people to access our offer and responses because they can announce where they want to receive the information and it is not so urgent that they go to the offices in Valledupar.
In the most recent interview with the national director of the ANT, Gerardo Vega, the official stated that in the entity there were 45,526 requests from small producers in Cesar, the department with the second most requests until the beginning of March…
The Caribbean has the largest number of requests for access to land in the entire country, which is why the president decided that the Caribbean and Magdalena Medio They are a priority in the implementation of the comprehensive agrarian reform, which leads to a greater number of purchases.
The highest rates of concentration of agricultural property in Colombia are in the Caribbean, so that the prioritization of these areas has a logical explanation.
But how is the bidding process going by ranchers and other groups of owners who, according to farmer associations, have not had any answers?
The Colombian State in recent times has had very little willingness for peasants to access land ownership by purchase or titling, it has been very precarious, that is what peasant organizations, indigenous and Afro communities complain about.
We aspire to respond to all these issues with the greatest rigor and efficiently using all the resources available to the National Land Agency.
With Fedegán and the other owners there has been a paradigm shift. In the past, the disposition of the actors facing the issue of agrarian reform was radicalized in the sense that it was believed that there had to be antagonistic elements to land ownership, it was perceived that any movement in favor of agrarian reform was a slogan of the left or groups outside the law.
Today, it is no longer predicable to see the ranchers and large landowners as enemies of the peasants, and the president has said that it is not valid to proceed with invasions or land seizures, and has refused to use the expropriation mechanism, this has eased tensions, it is clear to the ranchers that the offer is voluntary and that the price to be paid for the lands offered is the one set by the market rules.
What are the entity’s goals in terms of land purchase and titling in Cesar?
We have proposed, in these four years, to formalize 132,000 hectares of properties that belong to the Nation, but that should be in the hands of peasants, and buy 163,000 hectares.
This has never been done, in fact, in the entire history of agrarian reform in Cesar, close to 170,000 hectares.
For this single year we aspire to be able to reach 28,000 hectares purchased and income to peasants. It is an ambitious goal, but we are demanding strategic alliances with the municipal and departmental governments to fulfill it for the good of all Cesarenses. We call on the peasants to monitor the morality and legality of these processes.
Lea: The purchase process and land applications advance before the ANT in Cesar: this is how you can present your offer