On the initiative of Agriculture Minister Willy BORSUS, a Walloon Agricultural Land Agency is being set up in Wallonia. A right of first refusal for the Walloon Region is also being created to safeguard public ownership of agricultural land.
This Agency will be a tool for the centralised management of public agricultural real estate. Its priority is to promote farmers' access to land through leasing. This access to land will be achieved through farm tenancy leases, as this is the only form of indirect farming that provides operational stability.
The Agency will be established within the Rural Land Planning Directorate of SPW ARNE. It will also serve as a contact point for farm tenancy matters concerning public property.
The tasks of this contact point will be:
1° providing access to structured and accessible information on farm tenancy legislation (thereby raising awareness of the rules introduced since the 2019 reform) and on the rules governing the provision of public agricultural real estate;
2° supporting public owners in leasing out their agricultural real estate under farm tenancy agreements;
3° managing an advertising platform for the leasing of public agricultural real estate;
4° acquiring agricultural real estate on behalf of the Walloon Region in order to make it available to active farmers under farm tenancy agreements through the right of first refusal (see below);
5° managing agricultural real estate that public owners have entrusted to the Walloon Region for management, in order to make it available to active farmers under farm tenancy agreements.
The Agency will thus be available to help public owners lease out their agricultural land under farm tenancy agreements.
The procedure for leasing rural property belonging to public owners under farm tenancy agreements is indeed very time-consuming for municipalities. In this context, the Agency will be able to help them, for example, in drawing up specifications, checking exclusion and allocation criteria, and so on.
The right of first refusal now applies in favour of the Walloon Region whenever a public owner wishes to sell at least one hectare of agricultural real estate located in the Walloon Region. In this context, the Region will ensure that no new pressure is placed on the agricultural land market. The aim is to have a tool that helps farmers gain access to land by making it available through farm tenancy agreements and to preserve its food-producing and productive purpose.
The aim of introducing this right of first refusal is to preserve as much as possible the volume of publicly owned agricultural land in order to make it available to farmers.
For Minister Willy BORSUS: “The creation of the Walloon Agricultural Land Agency and the right of first refusal for the Walloon Region will help serve our Walloon farms as effectively as possible and strengthen the use of farm tenancy agreements for everyone.”