There are calls for Fiji to adopt a single land leasing system to revitalise the country's agricultural economy.
A Consultant at the Enterprise Research Institute in Washington DC, Paul Holden is recommending that the government lease all agricultural land from the Native Land Trust Board and then sub-lease that land to tenants.
Mr Holden says that should help buffer the industry from the looming decline in the sugar industry as the European Union prepares to cut Fiji's preferential access to its market.
He says at present landowners get a poor return from their assets and there is little incentive to invest in improving the land.
"Time and again you hear of landowners not benefitting and quite often Chiefs benefitting and you get a breakdown of land lease payments that really bring very little to the landowners themselves because the LTB takes a cut, the Chief generally takes a cut and then the actual landowners themselves get less than half of the rent proceeds in many cases."
A Consultant at the Enterprise Research Institute in Washington DC, Paul Holden
