Page 14 - Malcolm Borg News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

He said he and the prime minister were left thinking hard about how they could plan contingencies for such a situation. “Malta has almost never been self-sufficient in terms of food security. It’s almost impossible I think, both due to the fact that we live on an island and that there is a high population density,” Borg said. “But, certainly, the percentage of food produced locally stands to improve and put us in a better situation than we are at present.” He said that about three-quarters of the food needed is imported. This is both because a lot of the produce in demand does not g...

This very conservative estimate is already three times the price of arable land five years ago. According to a 2016 EU research paper on agricultural land prices, one tumolo of land cost slightly more than €14,000. Back then, this was already expensive, with European prices ranging from €178 per tumolo in Sweden to €8,000 in the Netherlands and €10,500 in the Canary Islands. Malcolm Borg, who chairs Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi, told Times of Malta that farmers looking into acquiring arable land in Malta are being asked for some €70,000 to €80,000 per tumolo, while adverts seen by this ...

Two of Malta’s leading agricultural NGOs say they are receiving an increasing number of reports from distressed farmers worried they could be kicked off their land, following a landmark court judgment last November. The two NGOs sounded the alarm after the Constitutional Court ruled that the Agricultural Leases Act, which grants tenants an indefinite right of renewal, breached a landlord’s fundamental rights. That judgment was the first to back owners of agricultural land – often worth millions but leased at a paltry rent – and the fear is that it could open the floodgates to many mor...