Registry Delays Lock Tierra Verde Farmers Out of Fair-Price Access

The Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs reported in late August that 3,847 land-registration applications in Tierra Verde remain pending, with an average processing time now exceeding six months. The delay has created a bottleneck: farmers cannot prove title to their plots and therefore cannot enroll in the federal price-stabilization programme, which requires registered ownership as proof of eligibility.

In the towns around San Vicente, cooperative leaders say the backlog is forcing smallholders to sell their harvests on the open market at whatever price the middlemen offer. A coffee farmer near Villarrica, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported selling his September crop at 18 percent below the federal floor price because his title application has been pending since March.

The Federal Office says it has requested additional staff and budget from Meridian but has received neither. The Tierra Verde Regional Assembly's agriculture committee is preparing a formal petition to the federal government, arguing that the registry delays are effectively pricing smallholders out of the protections the fair-price scheme was designed to provide.