2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-EIGHT - Public Lands (§§ 1 — 737) › PART III - Housing Development And Improvements Administration (§§ 521 — 737) › Chapter 55 - Family-Type Farm Program (Title VI of Land Law) › § 582 - Secretary of Agriculture; powers

To carry out and continue the development of the program established in this title, and to attain the objective stated in the preceding section, the Secretary of Agriculture of Puerto Rico, in the name and in behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is hereby authorized and empowered to:
(1) Acquire by purchase, condemnation, assignment, donation, conveyance, or by any other legal manner, the lands and any other properties necessary, as well as to use said lands and properties thus acquired to fulfill the ends and purposes of Title VI. To such ends the personal and real properties and any interest thereon that may be necessary for such ends and purposes, are hereby declared of public utility.
(2) Rent and lease the lands and other properties to carry out the purpose of this title. The lease and sublease contracts shall provide whatever is necessary to ensure that the lessee and sublessees, in each case, be eligible for the enjoyment of the property which has been granted and that they devote same to agricultural use that such lands have been destined for or to such use that the Secretary may provide.
(3) Make groups, lots and subdivisions of the farms that may be acquired and to require the grouping of those alienated, as he may deem necessary and advisable for the purposes of this title.
(4) Make improvements on the lands acquired to facilitate the agricultural exploitation of the farms; Provided, That it may include in whole or in part in the value of lands the cost of said improvements, as well as the cost of assessment and measurement.
(5) Sell the lands and other properties acquired or those conveyed to said program, on the terms, installments, interest and conditions that may be established by regulation; Provided, That the selling price shall not be less than the acquisition price of the lands, that the terms for its payment shall not exceed forty (40) years, and that there shall be stated in such sales the limitations and conditions provided in this title. In any case in which the owner of such lands and properties is the lawful usufructuary of same under the program in force upon the taking of effect of this act, there shall be given to the latter the opportunity of purchasing them under the provisions of this act, or of continuing to enjoy them as usufructuary. If he chooses to retain them in usufruct, he shall continue to own them according to the legal provisions and the norms under which the Program of Title VI had been governed upon the taking of effect of this act, and which are established in § 584 of this title, and in accordance with the conditions and restrictions set forth in his usufruct contract and other provisions that may have become part of the same. If he chooses to purchase them, the payments made by reason of the usufruct until the time of the sale shall be accredited to the sale price, which shall be the acquisition price. Likewise, he may lease or sublease said lands and properties or those he may have leased, under the terms and conditions that may be established by regulation; Provided, further, That in cases of subleases, the rental shall not be more than the rental that the Secretary of Agriculture has been obliged to pay, and in cases of lease, the rental shall not be less than that resulting from the capitalization of the cost of the lands and other properties at a forty-year term, on the basis of an interest not lower than two (2%) nor greater than four percent (4%) annually.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection and in § 584 of this title, in those cases in which the land and other property have been acquired through expropriation, and the court had fixed an increase in the compensation which exceeds by fifty percent (50%) the amount of the estimated fair compensation originally consigned in the court for the land and other expropriated properties, the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby empowered to use the method hereinafter provided to compute the corresponding payments for the parcels which he grants for sale or lease, pursuant to the powers conferred in this subsection, or in usufruct, under the provisions of § 584 of this title, instead of the cost decreed in such expropriation sentences: to the sum consigned originally as the estimated fair compensation for the lands and other expropriated properties, there shall be added the average percentage of all increases in compensation established in the two years preceding the date of the expropriation sentence in the other expropriation procedures instituted for the purposes of Title VI of the Land Law, as long as the added amount resulting from said operation is less than the increase in compensation fixed by the court.
(6) Convey and devote to forest purposes such lands that may be acquired or which are conveyed for purposes of Title VI and which in his judgment do not adapt themselves to such purposes and which are adequate for forest purposes.
(7) Sell, exchange, lease, assign or convey lands and other properties gratuitously for the establishment of facilities or public services or such services rendered by private persons which are necessary for the welfare of the families that have availed themselves of said program; Provided, That when such facilities or services are not for public purposes, the lands and properties shall only be provided through sale, exchange or lease.
(8) Grant loans without interest, as an initial economic assistance for the establishment of families on farms, including, but without it being limited, to the acquisition of houses or to the purchase of materials for the house and the purchase of seeds, fertilizers, animals, farm implements, farm equipment and other materials to carry out the necessary improvements for the efficient exploitation of the farms. The Secretary of Agriculture is hereby empowered to promulgate the regulation necessary for the granting of these loans. The amount of the said loans shall not exceed seventy-five percent (75%) of the sale price of the farm and of the proposed permanent improvements which may be added thereto, and its payment may be amortized jointly with said price to be liquidated in a term no greater than forty (40) years.
(9) Enter into agreements with federal and Commonwealth agencies or with private entities for the purpose of facilitating the development of this program. Under such agreements he may grant loans, in order that the farmers may acquire farms that may provide them with an adequate income under some program or plan of any agency or instrumentality of the federal or Commonwealth government, accepting second mortgages and postponing the collection of such loans to a later term if he considers it necessary or advisable to such purposes.
(10) Hire or use the services and facilities of other agencies and public corporations to acquire farms or to carry out the purposes of this title.
(11) Carry out any act or contract as may be determined necessary or convenient to carry out and comply with the functions entrusted thereto by this title.
History —Dec. 7, 1966, No. 5, p. 24, § 1; June 7, 1967, No. 113, p. 352; Mar. 5, 1979, No. 19, p. 40, § 1.