Court Rules In Favour Of New Leaseholders In Organic Farm Dispute

Budapest, May 30 (MTI) – The district court of Szekesfehervar has ruled in favour of new leaseholders at the organic farm of Kishantos, central Hungary, and said they had the exclusive right to cultivate the land disputed.

In its non-binding ruling, the court on Thursday rejected a plea by the Kishantos Development Centre, in which the old leaseholders accused the new users of trespassing.

The Ministry of Agriculture told MTI in a statement that the court’s decision is welcomed by the state, which believes old leaseholders do not have a right to use the land. Eight new farmers won the lease for the state-owned land in a tender last year.

Several rulings have already been passed regarding Kishantos by various district courts, all appealable. In one ruling passed last week, the court said the farm ministry had hurt the reputation of the organic farm in Kishantos by making untrue claims regarding the organic farmers’ lease payments and regarding the farm’s delivery of contracted developments to the state.

In another appealable ruling in April, a court said it was new leaseholders that had been trespassing on the disputed land in November last year, when the previous farmers refused to give it up, citing legal concerns.

The new leaseholders started to plough up the fields at Kishantos on April 12. The old farmers, members of the Kishantos Rural Development Centre, however, said that the newcomers were not “legally in possession” of the area, as there were several legal disputes still underway.

Photo: www.agroinform.com

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters