Reforming the Agricultural Land Rental Market in Trinidad and Tobago

Many farmers in Trinidad & Tobago rent the land on which they farm, either from the State, State-owned enterprises (in particular Caroni (1975) Ltd.) or from private landlords. Renting of agricultural land is particularly important in the small farm sector. In the past, the State has sought to intervene in the agricultural land rental market through direct intervention (renting out State-owned lands to small producers at subsidized rates and acquisitions of tenanted agricultural estates) and through legislation designed to regulate the relationship between "small holders" and landlords, in particular the Agricultural Smallholdings Tenure Act (ASHTA) of 1961. Over the past decade, as part of a wider agriculture sector reform programme, the Government has attempted to reform the institutions and legislation impacting on the agriculture land rental market. It was hoped that these reforms would create a more vibrant, dynamic and transparent land rental market and that this would, in turn, foster a more vibrant and dynamic agriculture sector. To date these efforts have had little impact. This paper concentrates on land rented from private landlords and reports on the findings of a rapid appraisal conducted in three agricultural areas of Trinidad. The paper finds that there has been very little adherence to the provisions of ASHTA. It concludes that current efforts to reform ASTHA will have a limited impact on the agricultural land rental market. Instead, wider reforms to the entire land administration system are urgently needed to assure the effective functioning of the agricultural land rental market.