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Explained: Agricultural Regulation

06-02-2024/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

There is no precise definition for an agricultural regulation. However, it is a commonly used term for a notice issued to a farmer who owns their land. By obtaining this agricultural regulating document, the farmer gains access to government-subsidised agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, diesel fuel and a certificate of origin for the crop. The farmer can only obtain the agricultural regulation notice if they commit to planting specific crops like wheat, barley, cotton, and sugar beet following the annual agricultural plan approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform. The farmer is also required to sell the crop exclusively to the state. An agricultural regulating notice is not considered a property ownership deed per se.

Various laws and decisions mention agricultural regulation. Among these are the Agricultural Production Regulating Law No. 59 of 2005 and its executive instructions, amendments via Decree No. 28 of 2014 and Decree No. 14 of 2017, and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Decision No. 8/T of 2006 and its amendment via Decision No. 125/T of 2016.

It is not easy to define agricultural regulation terms from these laws and decisions, as the term can sometimes refer to the Ministry of Agriculture’s annual plan, sometimes to the notice granted to the farmer, and sometimes to the administrative procedure or application for obtaining agricultural regulating notice. Adding to this ambiguity is using terms on official websites such as “agricultural regulating procedure” and “entering into agricultural regulation,” which implies adherence to the annual agricultural plan.

Simply put, the agricultural regulating notice is the document that a farmer who owns their land (and sometimes also raises livestock) obtains by adhering to the annual agricultural plan. This notice allows the farmer to extract another document called the “agricultural licence,” which in turn entitles them to access facilities and guidance, and subsidised quotas of seeds, fertiliser, diesel fuel for agricultural use and feed sold at reduced prices and in quantities that match the size of the land and the number of animals.

The validity period of the agricultural licence is five years and is renewable. In recent years, to renew the agricultural licence, it has been sufficient for the farmer to provide a written commitment that there has been no change in their previous information. If the agricultural plan is not followed, such as planting a different crop, the farmer is deprived of both the agricultural regulation notice and agricultural licence, and financial penalties are imposed.

The agricultural regulating notice is a prerequisite for applying for agricultural loans from the Agricultural Cooperative Bank and receiving compensation provided by the Fund for Mitigating the Impact of Drought and Natural Disasters on Agricultural Production.

To obtain an agricultural regulating notice, a farmer submits an “agricultural regulation” request to the Agricultural Extension Unit in their area, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. The farmer must have a deed of ownership for their land or a real estate record from the Land Registry or citizen service centres. If they do not have such documents, any of the following documents may be substituted: a judicial ruling or decision with final judgment, a statement of land use for beneficiaries of agrarian reform, a judicial declaration of ownership, a certificate of land transactions for lands that have not undergone delimitation and census, a lease or sharecropping contract, a general or special power of attorney organised by a notary public, a statement of ownership from the land distribution committee for reclaimed lands not yet registered in the names of their owners in the Land Registry, or a retention and waiver statement issued by the Directorate of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform for owners covered by the agrarian reform law in specified and released areas.

Obtaining any of these documents, including the property deed, is not easy for many farmers, often due to the lands not being subdivided. Their ownership remaining in common, the processes of delimitation and census not being completed, the marks of Restraint on Disposal that prevent transactions, pending inheritance disputes, in addition to issues with agrarian reform laws that grant farmers the right to use the land rather than own it.

To resolve these complications, at the end of 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture agreed to accept the physical inspection notice as an alternative to ownership documents when submitting an agricultural regulating procedure. A physical inspection notice is an on-site inspection conducted by a committee from the Agricultural Extension Unit for the concerned land based on a request from the stakeholder.

Due to all these administrative and bureaucratic complexities, farmers’ interest in agricultural regulation in regime areas has declined over the past few years, especially with the reduction in their diesel, fertiliser, and seed quotas and the falling prices of crops set and purchased by the state. Many farmers have seen agricultural regulation as a losing venture, turning instead to more economically viable crops such as vegetables, grains, pistachios and cumin and taking charge of marketing them independently.

Explained: New Law Mandates Transition to Modern Irrigation

04-07-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

On June 19, 2023, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued the year’s Law No. 10, establishing a fund to finance the National Project for Transition to Modern Irrigation. The aim is to regulate a mandatory transition plan to modern irrigation methods in irrigated agricultural lands.

The new law supersedes Legislative Decree No. 91 of 2005 and its amendments and Law No. 20 of 2010, which previously governed the implementation of the modern irrigation transition plan. The new law restructures the committees through which the stages of a transformation pass through to the issuance of the final decision and increases the fines imposed on beneficiaries who fail to implement obligations.

Funding for the project will be managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, headquartered in Damascus, with the potential to establish branches in other governorates. Funding amounts are deposited into a current account at the Agricultural Bank. The funds will be disbursed as grants and loans to beneficiaries to finance farming equipment and expenses during the transition process. A beneficiary in this project is anyone who invests in agriculture, whether owners, beneficiaries, renters or farmers. Law No. 10 stipulates that for tenant and landowning farmers to receive loans, the owner must approve or provide another guarantee acceptable to the Agricultural Cooperative Bank.

Law No. 10 lays out a strategy for implementing the transition to modern irrigation. This strategy is carried out through four categories of committees:

Sub-committees in the governorates established by the Minister of Agriculture. Each committee is chaired by the governor, with membership consisting of representatives from the Executive Office for the Agriculture Sector, the President of the Farmers’ Union in the governorate, and directors of the Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources, Industry, Finance and Economy in the relevant governorate. These sub-committees propose areas where irrigated land should be transitioned to modern irrigation.
A central committee established by the Minister of Agriculture and headed by the deputy minister. The committee consists of representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources, Industry, Finance and Economy, and the director of the Agricultural Bank. The central committee undertakes various tasks, including preparing a study of the areas required to transition to modern irrigation based on the sub-committee proposals.
The Board of Directors for the National Project for Transition to Modern Irrigation Fund acts as a committee formed by the Prime Minister and chaired by the Minister of Agriculture. The board includes representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources, Industry, Finance and Economy, and the director of the Agricultural Bank. The board has various responsibilities, including managing the project’s funding and proposing areas for mandatory transition to modern irrigation based on the central committee’s study.
The Higher Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister and including the Ministers of Agriculture, Water Resources, Industry, Finance, Economy, the President of the Planning and International Cooperation Commission and the President of the General Union of Farmers. This committee approves the areas for mandatory transition to modern irrigation based on the above committee’s proposals.

The assortment of committees will likely make implementation lengthier and more complex.

Law No. 10 mandates the transition to modern irrigation in the areas approved by the Higher Committee, while this transition remains optional in areas not approved. Once these areas are approved, the Minister of Agriculture decides to begin the transition process, accompanied by a plan outlining the included region’s boundaries and property numbers. If there are properties that have not undergone delimitation and census, a site map must be added for each, along with tables listing their owners, occupants, and legal documents.

Law No. 10 requires the Minister’s decision to be published in the Official Gazette and posted on the announcement board of the governorate administrative centre, the Directorate of Agriculture, the Farmers’ Union in that governorate, branches of the Agricultural Bank and agricultural associations. The law considers this publication a personal notification to the rights holders in the concerned area. Failure to personally notify may infringe on some landowners’ or occupants’ rights, especially considering that many have been displaced by the war or left the country.

Law No. 10 does not specify whether the Minister’s decision is final or if there is an opportunity to contest it. The previous law, No. 20 of 2010, explicitly stated that the Minister’s decision is final and may not undergo any review or challenge.

Under Law No. 10, those affected by the decision must consult the concerned authority in the governorate within three months from the announcement date to fulfil their obligations. The law does not specify these obligations. They are expected to be defined in the law’s executive instructions, which have not yet been issued.

Notably, Law No. 10 considers anyone whose land falls within the regions included in the transition projects and who refuses to fulfil the following obligations as violating the law. The law imposes hefty fines on violators, starting from SYP 50,000 per dunum in the first year of refusal and depriving them of all forms of support provided by the ministry to farmers. If the violation continues into the second year, the fine increases to SYP 100,000 per dunum, with a continued cutoff of the Ministry of Agriculture’s support. The fine rises to SYP 250,000 per dunum if the violation continues into the third year, up to the end of the fifth year, with deprivation of Ministry support. After the fifth year, the fine increases to SYP 500,000 per dunum.

These fines are imposed by a decision from the Minister, collected under the Public Assets Collection Law, and go to the public state treasury.

Explained: General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs

17-01-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

From the 16th century until the end of Ottoman rule in Syria, the Sharia courts regulated the documentation for proving real estate ownership and entered them into their records. These records are still preserved in Damascus and Aleppo, and to a lesser degree in Homs and Hama, and are still used before the Sharia courts today.

The modern system of land registration and administration in Syria began with the issuance of the Ottoman Tabu land registry system in 1859, which remained in force until 1918. Meanwhile, the current real estate system, with its institutions and laws, began only with the French mandate of Syria and Lebanon. The French High Commissioner issued four decrees based on French, German and Swiss laws in order to reform the real estate system in Syria and Lebanon:

Decree No. 186 of 1926, which included the system for real estate delimitation and census; Decree No. 187 of 1926, which identified the mechanisms for delimitation and census; Decree No. 188 of 1926, which included the Land Registry Law; and Decree No. 189 of 1926, which carried the executive instructions for the Land Registry Law.

This is how the modern Syrian state’s Land Registry came to be. Decree No. 188 of 1926 defined the Land Registry as a set of documents containing the descriptions and legal statuses of each piece of real estate, as well as the rights attached to them and any transactions or modifications. Under this decree, the registry consists of an ownership registry book and its supplementary documents, namely: daily book, a delimitation and census record, survey maps, aerial plans, survey plans and any other attached documents.

For Syrians, the term “Land Registry” refers to the place where real estate transactions and other related items are documented. As for the official name of the institution, it is called the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs (GDCA), and is headquartered in Damascus with sub-departments in each governorate.

The legal and administrative structure of the GDCA has developed over time to meet changing documentation and registry needs. That said, the four decrees issued in 1926, during the French mandate, still exist today, alongside their amendments.

Legislative Decree No. 81 of 1947 regulates the operations and staffing of the GDCA and stipulates opening central and subsidiary departments in the governorates. The GDCA was attached to the Ministry of Justice until 1959, when it was switched over to the Ministry of Agrarian Reform. Finally, Local Administration Law No. 7 of 2010 attached the GDCA to the Ministry of Local Administration.

Originally, there were five central departments to the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs under Law No. 81: the Administrative Diwan, the Inspection Commission, the Land Registration Department, the Real Estate Survey and Improvement Department, and the Accounting Department.

The number of departments increased over time, and their names and some of their duties changed, as the methods for preserving and archiving real estate documents developed from paper to photography, to digital. Today there are nine central departments: Real Estate Legalisation and Registration; Surveying; Administrative Affairs; Accounting; Central Land Registry; Information; Rehabilitation and Planning; Engineering and Transport; and Internal Monitoring.

Explained: Expropriating Properties That Haven’t Undergone Delimitation and Census

29-11-2022/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

Article 10 of Expropriation Law No. 20 of 1983 allows for the expropriation of lands that have not undergone delimitation and census – that is, real estate with no Land Record. For this to occur, from the outset, only the lands included in the expropriation must undergo delimitation and census. However, the expropriating party may also take possession of a property before this process.

The government delineated the delimitation and census process in Decree No. 186 of 1926, which concerns lands that still need to be included in the Land Registry. The process results in establishing a Land Record for real estate in a given area, assigning them property numbers, and submitting the owners’ names to Cadastral Affairs.

Council of Ministers Communique, issued in 1982, defines the procedures for expropriating real estate in areas that have yet to undergo delimitation and census. The expropriating public entity must announce its expropriation decree via its main headquarters and in the public square of the village where the targeted land is located. This entity then must provide the relevant real estate department with a copy of the expropriation decree, alongside a request to launch delimitation and census work on the expropriated property.

A real estate judge must sign the delimitation and census work decision to proceed with the job at hand, after which the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs and the expropriating entity are informed.

The Land Registry directorate tasks a survey team of specialised engineers, legal advisers, and other employees to carry out delimitation and census. The Land Registry’s delimitation and census office opens a dedicated register for the targeted properties to record the entire process and submit the final plans and survey records to the Land Registry’s secretariat.

The Directorate of State Properties, which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture, must also be represented as the survey team does its work so that it can provide any information or documents related to its rights and register any of its own objections. This right does not extend to the owner of the expropriated property. The Directorate of State Properties is in charge of inventorying, managing, and investing state-owned properties and opening and regulating registrations on that governorate’s real estate and public properties. The directorate also regulates the disposal, transfer of ownership, and registration of state-owned properties.

Once the work of delimitation and census is complete, the dossiers for the expropriated properties are submitted to the delimitation and census office for technical and legal review. The office then notifies the real estate judge of any deficiencies that must be resolved. The dossiers include survey and location plans for the property and notes on delimitation and census, such as a description of the property, its location, legal type, boundaries, owners’ names, any objections to those boundaries, and any other documents and papers provided by various parties.

The real estate judge announces when delimitation and census work has been completed, informs the relevant authorities, and sets a 10-day deadline for any objections. Only public entities may submit complaints, with owners and other rights holders excluded. In the eyes of the law, the property has become expropriated and is no longer privately owned. For objections to delimitation and census of properties that have not been expropriated, the deadline is 30 days.

Following the deadline for expropriated properties, the real estate judge announces their final decision and begins to read through the objections.

Relevant authorities must be notified of the final decision, and a copy of the decision must be posted to the door of the Real Estate Court. It does not need to be published in the Official Gazette. Afterwards, the decision is approved and sent directly to the secretariat of Cadastral Affairs to undergo any necessary procedures.

The owner of the expropriated property is excluded from these procedures. They also are not represented during this process even though the property has not yet been registered in the name of the expropriating entity. Though the owner should be allowed to intervene and present objections during delimitation and census, jurisprudence No. 325/326 of 1982 of the Supreme Administrative Court affirms that such owners are barred from this right. The court argues that this is because owners of exropriated properties have no relation to the delimitation and census process, which does not deprive them of their right to collect compensation on a set date.

Furthermore, expropriation allowances are not handed over to the expropriated property owners until after the delimitation and census procedure is complete, according to State Council Opinion No. 14 of 1973. This process can take years, negatively impacting the owner by barring them from their right to object and delaying their compensation.