Ministry of Agriculture Executes Only 27.4% of the Regular 2023 Budget

The government has received land offers totaling more than 1.5 million hectares, but has only purchased 28,359 hectares (1.8% of the total offered) from various sectors, including livestock. Recent weeks have been tumultuous for the Ministry of Agriculture following the announcement of a decree project aimed at speeding up agricultural processes and changing the rural domain extinction figure. This comes alongside a call for farmers to mobilize and organize in defense of the reform.

Although land purchase is a key aspect of agrarian reform, only 28,359 hectares have been acquired according to the MinAgricultura counter. This aligns with the ministry’s current budget execution, which, as per the government’s transparency portal, stands at 27.47%. Fedegan, the livestock trade association, has expressed difficulty in tracing offers from its affiliates which account for 580,000 hectares. José Félix Lafaurie, the leader of the livestock trade, highlighted that the government could meet its goal of purchasing 500,000 hectares this fiscal year, given that the land is available, but questioned if the funds are there.

Based on recent figures from ANT, the government has received offers for over 1.5 million hectares but has only acquired 1.8% of the total. The agriculture and rural development sector executed 25.13% of the 2023 regular budget, whereas the National Land Agency (ANT), responsible for property purchases, managed 19.74%.

“This year, we had almost $2 trillion for land purchases from the National Budget. We have $1 trillion pending and we have bought 206 farms to date. We plan to end this year with 100,000 hectares bought. Next year, we have a $5.3 trillion budget and aim to purchase 500,000 hectares,” stated Gerardo Vega Medina, ANT’s director.

Fedegan recently claimed there’s a bottleneck in land purchasing procedures. The government aims to buy 1.5 million hectares over the next three years, half the amount stipulated in the first point of the Peace Agreement.

The ministry reported that it has managed 385,212 hectares: 28,359 purchased, 962 donated, 30,708 reclaimed via agrarian processes, 301,233 formalized, and others through various schemes.

The transparency portal’s data reveals the Rural Development Agency had the least budget execution in the agricultural sector at 8.87%. In contrast, the general MinAgricultura management executed 27.47%, followed by other agricultural institutions with varying percentages.