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and reform has been much talked about lately, but not everyone understands what it really means. The term is interesting because it is related to what is really needed to be revised in our existing agrarian field.

When talking about agrarian reform, it is not only about land aspects but also has a wider scope, such as water, forestry and other natural resources. Some experts often refer to it as land reform instead of agrarian reform, and this could limit its meaning to be just about land.

Boedi Harsono, as one of the supporters of land reform terminology, states that land reform consists of restructuring ownership and control of land and its legal relationships related to land utilization.

Agrarian reform or land reform, even before 1960, has been the basis of change on land structure almost all over the world. The principle is that agrarian land has to be actively cultivated by itself or utilized by the owner. This principle is strictly regulated under the Agrarian Law, which states that every person and legal body that owns agriculture land is essentially obligated to actively cultivate or utilize it, by themselves, by a way of preventing extortion.

In order to apply it, a regulation on related specific laws is required, for example provisions on minimum border of land area that must be owned by farmers, so that they can earn a decent living for themselves and their families, provisions on maximum limit of land area that can be owned through ownership right, to prevent an accumulation of land by certain people.

The Agrarian Law then explains that ownership and control of land that exceeds the stipulated limit is not allowed, since it could harm public interest. In addition, provisions on agrarian reform should be followed with credit facilities, seed and other help with light requirements, so that the owner does not need to move to other fields.

Thus, it is clear that agrarian reform prioritizes the restructuring of land (redistribution), especially for ownership rights, to provide welfare to farmers, together with other incentives so that the farmers can continue farming, without relinquishing control of their land to other parties. These two cannot be separated.

The principle on limitation of land ownership for a farmer is further regulated through a law on the determination of agricultural land area that was promulgated a few months after the introduction of the Agrarian Law. It stipulates that a person or one family is only allowed to control agricultural land, whether self-owned, owned by another party or jointly owned with another party, measuring a maximum 20 hectares for dry land (for peppers, eggplant, crops, etc ) or 15 ha for farming (wet land), in sparsely populated areas.

For densely populated areas, the maximum area is between 6 and 12 ha for dry land and 5 and 10 ha for farming. With regards to land redistribution, as an implementing tool for agrarian reform under the Agrarian Law, the government issued a regulation in 1961 on implementation of land distribution and compensation.

Land plots that will be distributed, as a result of land reform, are inter alia, surplus of land deriving from the maximum allowed area of land as set forth in the Agrarian Law, land acquired by the government because the owners are not domiciled on the land, autonomous-region land and ex-autonomous-region land that has been transferred to the state, and other land directly controlled by the state. Redistribution of land is crucial since at that time, in average, a farmer in Indonesia only owns between 0.5 and 0.6 ha of land, making them unable to live a decent life.

Land redistribution is followed by the granting of land rights and then registered, so that land office will prepare a land book and its holder will obtain a land certificate. Bernhard Limbong explains some of the challenges of agrarian reform, namely divided and inadequate regulations, national politics that orients to capitalism and neoliberalism, problems with land distribution, emergence of land speculators, overlapping of policy by central and regional governments and inadequate spatial planning.

The government must resolve the issues and manage the challenges so that agrarian reform can be implemented according to the compilers of the Agrarian Law from the beginning.

Land certification has its own problems from those in agrarian reform, even though they are related. The Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry aims for entire land certification in Indonesia to be completed in 2025. This is a brave and fine target. It is about time that all land was registered so it is easier for investors/buyers to acquire land, even for governmental use, or procuring land for public interest.

Land certification can also minimize land speculation that can disturb the prevailing market value when land procurement is ongoing, which is also one of agrarian reform’s challenges.

To materialize the land certification program, the government has promulgated some regulations on the national program on agrarian issues through systematic land registration and acceleration of complete systematic land registration. Both were issued in 2016. The regulations are meant to provide legal certainty and protect the land rights of people fairly and equitably.

Financing systematic land registration could be obtained through state or local government budgets. Whereas financing for the acceleration of systematic land registration could be obtained through non-tax state revenue of the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry, the budget program list, the state budget, other legitimate sources such as grants or loans and corporate social responsibility programs.

The provision is in harmony with an article published in The Jakarta Post on March 21, which stated that the Jakarta administration had approved the allocation of Rp 100 billion (US$7.5 million) for land certification in the capital city and waived the acquisition levy for land and buildings for land certification with a taxable land value of less than Rp 2 billion. Furthermore, the ministry will also motivate regional governments to obtain fund through corporate social responsibility programs.

Agrarian reform focuses on the restructuring of ownership and control over land. This program is the founding fathers’ vision and the composers of the Agrarian Law. That vision is noble and should be supported by every Indonesian. Several challenges, including completion of land certification by 2025, have to be mapped out and resolved. It is hopeful that the agrarian reform’s goal, to strengthen and expand land ownership for all Indonesians, especially farmers, will be evident.
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The writer is the CEO and managing partner of Leks & Co. Lawyers and lecturer of Agrarian Law of Podomoro University. The views expressed are his own.