CATEGORISATION OF FARMERS REGULATIONS

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 639.10

CATEGORISATION OF FARMERS REGULATIONS

9th August, 2024

LEGAL NOTICE 122 of 2024.

(1)

The title of these regulations is the Categorisation

of Farmers Regulations.

(2)

The scope of these regulations is to create categories of

agricultural holdings and categorise farmers according to their

economic activity.

(1)

In these regulations, unless the context otherwise

requires

"Act" means the Agriculture Act;

"annual income" means the annual value added per

annual working unit of a commercial holding;

"Board" means the Holding Evaluation Board as

established by regulation 5;

"commercial holdings" means agricultural holdings

managed by a farmer with a standard output of four thousand

euro (€4000) or more per annum

Provided that agricultural holdings with a standard

output of less than four thousand euro (€4000) per annum shall

be not be considered commercial holdings

"data" means any data related to all aspects of the

production and processing of agricultural products, including

but not limited to agricultural holding structure, location,

accountancy, employment and agricultural and processing

practices;

"derived annual income" means the annual income of the

commercial holding calculated on the basis of the size of the

agriculture holding;

"Minister"

means

the

Minister

responsible

for

agriculture;

"Ministry" means the Ministry for agriculture;

"National Statistics Office" means the National Statistics

Office as established according to article 9 of the Malta

Statistics Authority Act, or any other body or person which

may, from time to time perform its functions;

"standard output" means the standard value of gross

production of commercial holdings as may be calculated

according to Council Regulation (EC) No 1217/2009 of 30

November 2009 setting up the Farm Sustainability Data

Network" and, or published by Eurostat according to European

Union legislation, as in force from time to time;

(2)

Unless the context otherwise requires, words and phrases

used in these regulations which are not defined in this regulation shall

have the same meaning as assigned to them in the Act.

(1)

The Director shall publish, by means of a

Government notice in the Gazette, tables indicating the benchmarks to

provide for the categorization of commercial holdings for each

category of suitably defined activities attributable to commercial

holdings, and said notice shall also provide benchmarks for

determining the derived annual income of commercial holdings

according to the standard outputs applicable to them;

Provided that in so doing the Director shall apply a

suitably simplified methodology of calculating the derived annual

income of commercial holdings.

(2)

The studies underlying the determination referred to in

sub-regulation (1) shall be updated periodically at the discretion of the

Director by utilising suitable statistical tools, instruments and

variables

Provided that at the discretion of the Director, the

Government notice shall also have other relevant information

consistent with the methodology involved, such as the number of

livestock units and the area of utilised agricultural land;

Provided further that the categorization of commercial

holdings referred in this regulation shall be revised at least every five

(5) years.

(3)

The tables referred in this regulation shall categorise the

annual income derived from an agricultural holding into four (4)

classes including all the commercial holdings in the following ranges

(a)

less than or equal to the minimum wage according

to applicable laws;

(b)

more than the minimum wage and less or equal to

the midpoint between the minimum wage and the average basic

wage for employees as reported by the National Statistics

Office;

(c)

more than the midpoint between the minimum

wage and the average basic wage for employees as reported by

the National Statistics Office, and less than or equal to the

average basic wage for employees as reported by the National

Statistics Office; and

(d)

more than the average basic wage for employees

as reported by the National Statistics Office.

(4)

The activity categories shall differentiate between

livestock and crop holdings, and include rationalisations to properly

account for situations of mixed activity holdings, according to a notice

published by the Director in the Gazette.

(1)

By the end of March of every year the Director

shall categorise each commercial holding into one of the four (4)

categories of derived farm income according to the standard output

data of such commercial holding as available to the Ministry.

(2)

The categorisation shall be based on the data of the

previous years and shall take into account cycles in which the

particular agricultural product was made available to the market

during the year.

(3)

The Director shall categorise the commercial holding by

attributing the categorisation based on the standard output of the

previous year and by attributing the standard output of the average of

the three (3) years preceding the year of categorisation.

(4)

A farmer may request a re-categorisation by making a

declaration to the Board, duly proving the agricultural holding’s

standard output, through the submission of a request to the Board with

all the following necessary supporting documentation

(a)

all documentation supplied to the fiscal authorities

in relation to the agricultural activity of the agricultural

holding;

(b)

site plans of the parcels being cultivated by the

agricultural holding;

(c)

proof that the agricultural holding is being

managed by the farmer who is requesting the re-categorisation;

(d)

crop plans by the agricultural holding and any

agreements relating to the agricultural holding; and

(e)

any further documentation as may be requested by

the Board, from time to time

Provided that holdings whose information is not

made available to the Ministry by the farmer shall not be

considered

Provided further that farmers requesting a re-

categorisation shall provide all their submissions by not later

than June of the same year.

(1)

The Minister shall appoint a Board which shall be

responsible for evaluating the request made in terms of regulation 4(4).

(2)

The Board shall be composed of

(a)

a Chairperson, who shall be a public officer

having a substantive grade of scale five (5) or higher within the

public service and serving within the Ministry;

(b)

an agronomic expert being a public officer within

the Ministry; and

(c)

an economics officer being a public officer within

the Ministry.

(3)

An officer of the Directorate shall also be appointed to

act as a secretary to the Board by the Director.

(4)

The Board shall issue its decisions to farmers in writing

by not later than ninety (90) days from when the farmers requesting re-

categorisation provide their submissions, but if the last day of that

term is not a working day then the decision shall be communicated to

farmers not later than the next working day

Provided that the decision of the Director shall inter alia

include the categorisation attributed to the commercial holding.

A farmer may contest a decision according to regulation

5(4) by filing an application before the Administrative Review

Tribunal established according to article 5(1) of the Administrative

Justice Act within thirty (30) days from date of service on the farmer

of the Board’s decision.