Agricultural practices permit: clearing, ponds and roads

Before this Act, a farmer who wanted to clear land or build a pond had to go through Natural Resources and then the Permit Management Office, and the statement of motives itself says “a permit took over six (6) months to be granted, creating a bureaucratic and inoperative process.” Act 140-2015 handed that key back to the Department of Agriculture for farms of forty cuerdas or less, put a clock on the process, and left four practices entirely outside any permit.

The Act defines “Farmer” broadly: any natural or juridical person engaged in tilling and cultivating the land, in the livestock industries — that is, raising animals — and in the commercial production of ornamental flowers, plants and grasses. For the short route, size decides: farms with an area equal to or less than forty (40) cuerdas go through the Department of Agriculture alone. For the route for farms larger than forty cuerdas the Act adds a condition: that “bona fide agricultural activities, as certified by the Department of Agriculture,” be proposed. And “Bona Fide Farmer” has its own definition in Article 3(e): a natural or juridical person with a current certification from the Secretary evidencing that in that year they engaged in an agricultural business and derive fifty per cent (50%) or more of gross income from that business as operator, owner or lessee, as shown on their income tax return.

• Be a farmer: a natural or juridical person engaged in tilling and cultivating land, in the livestock industries, or in the commercial production of ornamental flowers, plants and grasses.Verified against the official source
• For the Agriculture-only route: that the farm have an area equal to or less than forty (40) cuerdas.Verified against the official source
• For farms larger than forty (40) cuerdas: that bona fide agricultural activities be proposed, as certified by the Department of Agriculture.Verified against the official source
• That the purpose be agricultural: using this Act to clear a farm for non-agricultural purposes such as housing, businesses or developments is prohibited.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Four things you can do without asking for anything

   We start here because it saves many people the trip. Article 4(h) is one line and carries no conditions: “For purposes of this Act, farmers shall be exempt from applying for any permit to carry out the agricultural practices of ploughing, harrowing, furrowing and terrace-banking.” Four practices, no permit. Article 5(c) confirms it from the other side, since it prohibits carrying out any practice for agricultural purposes without a permit “with the exception of the practices of ploughing, harrowing, furrowing and terrace-banking.”

2. 2

   Step 2: Measure the farm: forty cuerdas is the line

   Everything else depends on size. If your farm has “an area equal to or less than forty (40) cuerdas,” the permit is issued by the Secretary of Agriculture and nobody else, and the list of what it covers is long: clearing weeds, removal of the earth’s crust, building terraces, roads within the farm, ditches, levelling, building ponds for irrigation and for raising fish and shrimp, watering troughs, irrigation canals, and installing piping for irrigation and drainage systems. Above forty cuerdas, the permit is granted by Agriculture and Natural Resources jointly in the practices falling within the latter’s expertise.

3. 3

   Step 3: Even for a big farm, you file at Agriculture

   This avoids knocking on the wrong door. Article 4(b) says: “The application for these permits shall be submitted initially to the Department of Agriculture, which shall have a maximum of seven (7) days to refer them to the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.” That is, you file in one place and the internal referral is their problem, on a seven-day clock.

4. 4

   Step 4: The clock: if they do not answer, the permit is deemed granted

   This is the most valuable sentence in the Act and it appears twice, once for each route, in the same words: the permits “must be processed within a term of thirty (30) days, subject to a single extension of thirty (30) additional days, after which, if the permits have not been issued or denied, they shall be deemed granted.” Thirty days, a single thirty-day extension, and silence works in your favour. Keep proof of the date you filed, because that date is what starts the clock.

5. 5

   Step 5: On a large farm, the permit lasts ten years

   Article 4(b) continues: “Permits for agricultural practices on farms larger than forty (40) cuerdas shall have a duration of ten (10) years from the date they were granted, after which they may be renewed automatically if there are no significant changes in natural conditions or in the proposed agricultural practices.” And it carries a matching condition: “For this expedited permit mechanism to apply, the farm must be in production and devoted to agricultural activities, as certified by the Secretary, for ten (10) consecutive years from the granting of the permit.” Ten years of permit, with a ten-year production commitment.

6. 6

   Step 6: Who evaluates and what else they will ask of you

   It is not decided by just any official. Article 4(j) requires that “The Secretary shall delegate to a duly colegiado and licensed agronomist the evaluation of applications for agricultural practice permits and the subsequent corresponding certifications.” Three more things come with it. Article 4(e): the Secretary will set, together with you, a plan for developing the farm including the plantings and livestock activities. Article 4(f): if you are a new farmer working a farm for the first time, an inventory of trees by species will be made in the areas to be cleared, kept in your file. Article 4(i): on your first clearing request, the Secretary will recommend doing it in stages, ensuring plantings are made on a programmed basis. And Article 4(d) requires the Secretary to evaluate whether mitigation is needed for tree cutting or impact on natural habitats, consulting Natural Resources staff with expertise.

7. 7

   Step 7: The line you do not cross, and what crossing it costs

   The Act is explicit about what it is NOT for. Article 5(a) prohibits “using this legislation to clear and clean a farm for non-agricultural purposes, such as housing construction, businesses, commercial and residential developments, among others,” and 5(b) prohibits violating the conditions of the permit you were given. The Secretary, an authorised representative, or the Ranger Corps of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources may impose administrative fines at the very moment of the visit or inspection. And Article 7 sets the scale: “on the first occasion a fine of one thousand (1,000) dollars. On each subsequent occasion a person commits a violation a fine of up to ten thousand (10,000) dollars shall be imposed, or imprisonment for a term of not less than six (6) months and one (1) day and not more than three (3) years, or both penalties at the Court’s discretion.”

At the Department of Agriculture, always, regardless of farm size: it is the single door set by Article 4(b) even for farms larger than forty cuerdas, which Agriculture refers to Natural Resources within a maximum of seven days. The evaluation is done by a colegiado and licensed agronomist to whom the Secretary delegates. The Act publishes no form, office, address, telephone or filing fee, and we do not invent them.

• Applying for a permit to plough, harrow, furrow or terrace-bank: the Act exempts those four practices from any permit.
• Building a pond or road without a permit believing they are exempt too: only those four are.
• Filing at Natural Resources because the farm is large: the application is submitted initially to Agriculture, which refers it within a maximum of seven days.
• Not recording the filing date: without it you cannot count the thirty days or invoke that the permit is deemed granted.
• Believing the extension can repeat: the Act allows a single extension of thirty additional days.
• Using the agricultural permit to prepare land for housing or development: it is expressly prohibited and is the conduct the Act aims to prevent.
• Assuming a large-farm permit must be renewed by hand: it lasts ten years and may be renewed automatically absent significant changes.
• Thinking only Agriculture can fine you: the DRNA Ranger Corps may also impose administrative fines during the inspection.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Agricultura de Puerto Rico

  Agricultura

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov