Peceli Naviticoko 
The iTaukei Land Trust Board is working to recover $14 million in outstanding lease payments, warning tenants that unpaid rent and failure to comply with
lease conditions could affect lease renewals.
TLTB says the recovery effort is necessary to ensure landowners receive what is legally owed to them.
However, the message is not simply about eviction, with farmers also being urged to make productive use of their land.
TLTB Chief Executive Solomone Nata says outstanding arrears are among the factors considered when leases come up for renewal.
“In arrears, leases expire, no renewal. Obviously, if you don’t use the land protectively, for cane leases, for agriculture, if you’re not planting, you’re
not abiding with the terms and conditions. If the leases or the land has been used for other purposes, say for cane land, they do have a garage there, for
commercial, those are things.”
He says tenants must fulfil their lease obligations, while recognising landowners’ right to access their land when needed.
Minister for Multi-Ethnic Affairs Charan Jeath Singh says farmers who cannot cultivate their entire leased area should consider reducing it rather than
continue paying rent on unproductive land.
Singh says farmers should focus on the land they can use productively and pay rent only for the area they need.
“My suggestion to them, if you’ve got a 50 acre land and you’re not cultivating the whole 50 acres, you reduce it. Reduce it to say 25, 30 acres. Let the
other 20 acres go, you just concentrate on where your usable land is, or arable land is, and you pay only for that.”
TLTB is urging tenants to pay their rent and comply with lease conditions, warning that failure to meet their obligations could affect lease renewals.
