The hypothesis contained in the government's maxi-amendment to the stability law of selling state agricultural land is truly curious. For the simple fact that Available state land is a real rarity, word of former minister. The question was raised by the senators of the League, Giampaolo Vallardi and Enrico Montani. The two, addressing the minister of agriculture, recalled that already with the anti-crisis decree of 2009 - later converted into law - the leasing of agricultural assets owned by the State or public bodies to young farmers was envisaged, with the aim of foster generational turnover and the development of youth entrepreneurship in agriculture.
Within two months of the entry into force of the law, the State Property Agency should have identified the free assets owned by the State with agricultural destination. Last February, the two senators from Northern League wondered if the application of these rules was proceeding as planned. The answer was given to them by the then minister of agriculture, Giancarlo Galan (who held the department from 15 April 2010 to 23 March 2011, later replaced by the current minister Francesco Saverio Romano). And it leaves no room for doubts: "there are not many lands available", on the contrary.
A special one reconnaissance it had been entrusted to Ismea, which had identified the possible assets of agricultural interest. And here we are at the point. “In this regard, it should be noted that a series of critical issues emerged from this first survey, conducted for each Italian province. In fact – Minister Galan explained – not all provinces have state-owned land: some of these are no longer agricultural; some areas with agricultural use are already cultivated; the larger surfaces are occupied by woods, meadows or pastures or they are surfaces that are difficult to recover from an agricultural point of view”. And Galan evaluated the opportunity for further technical-administrative investigations and to present a report to Parliament.
Of course, a few months have passed from February to today, and the problem raised concerned the rental of the land, not the sale: but it is difficult to think that land that is no longer agricultural, difficult to recover or occupied by woods could have been recovered and freed in so little time to be placed on the market for sale.
