Cantonal Agriculture Act (KLwG) - Purpose (KLwG)

1. This law aims to preserve and promote an entrepreneurial, yet environmentally and market-appropriately producing agriculture, which serves national supply and the common good.

2. The canton primarily promotes independent family farms, nature-friendly farming practices, regional balance, and cultural values.

3. In all promotional measures, the dignity of nature must be respected.

1. The canton participates within the scope of its financial capabilities in federal measures that require a cantonal contribution.

1. Cantonal Contributions and Loans, Provided Independently of Federal Support Measures, Are to Be Used to Ensure Market, Environmentally, and Animal Welfare Compliant, as well as Landscape-Friendly Production.

1. A claim to contributions and loans exists, to the extent that the law does not provide otherwise, within the framework of the available resources.

1. The administrative offices designated as competent by the Government Council in the ordinance shall enforce the provisions of agricultural law, insofar as this law does not provide otherwise.

2. The competent department shall exercise supervision over the enforcement of agricultural law.

3. The Government Council may establish advisory commissions for specific areas.

4. Unless the municipality has stipulated otherwise in its legislative enactments, the competent body of the municipality is the municipal council.

1. The Canton collects and manages agricultural operational data in collaboration with the municipalities, which are needed for federal and cantonal legal measures. It maintains these data.

2. The municipalities designate a responsible person. This individual may also be involved in verification tasks (initial inspections).

3. The operational data shall be fully or partially accessible to the entities and organizations specified by the Executive Council in the regulation. This is subject to the provisions of the Cantonal Law on the Protection of Personal Data (Cantonal Data Protection Act) of July 2, 1990.

4. In the interest of efficient administration, the Executive Council may also grant third parties, entrusted with the implementation of agricultural legislation pursuant to § 7, access to the data.

5. Persons from whom data are collected shall be informed about its use.

1. The canton may delegate tasks to third parties and compensate them for this.

1. The canton maintains agricultural education and advisory centers as well as a dairy education center. These centers are subject to the law on vocational education and continuing education.

2. ...

3. An agricultural operation is affiliated with the agricultural education and advisory centers, which is to serve the needs of the school, practical agriculture, sustainable management, and the information of the public.

4. ...

5. The agricultural education and advisory centers may operate a boarding school and a dormitory.

6. The government council regulates the specifics in a regulation.

1. The advisory service is intended to inform and support individuals engaged in agriculture, rural household management, agricultural organizations, or in the context of rural development with respect to career-oriented further education.

2. It particularly promotes inter-company cooperation and economic networking.

1. The canton ensures the provision of advisory services at the cantonal level. It may maintain its own advisory services, which are usually affiliated with agricultural educational centers.

2. The government council regulates the specifics, particularly the collection of advisory fees.

1. The competent office coordinates business consulting.

1. The canton may provide contributions to cantonal or regional advisory and control services, as well as specialist departments, quality control measures, and special services in the field of counseling.

1. The Canton may conduct or support agricultural experiments and studies. It strives to coordinate with the research conducted by the Confederation.

1. As structural improvements, the canton can support measures and works that ensure the sustainable use and productivity of the soil, facilitate its management, protect it from devastation by natural events, and promote a diversified and richly structured cultural landscape.

2. In implementation, comprehensive solutions should be sought, which also take into account a richly structured cultural landscape.

1. Structural Improvements are land improvements, access developments, and agricultural buildings.

2. Land improvements are

a. Land consolidations, comprehensive land ameliorations, voluntary land rearrangements,

b. Drainage of cultivated land, stream corrections, land reclamations,

c. Measures for the prevention and rectification of devastation or threats to cultivated land and agricultural structures and installations due to natural events,

d. Measures for the prevention of erosion.

3. Access developments are

a. Farm roads,

b. Cableways,

c. Water supply systems in mountainous areas,

d. Electricity supply systems in mountainous areas.

4. Agricultural buildings are

a. Expansions and resettlements,

b. Structural measures for the more rational management of farming enterprises and to comply with new animal and water protection regulations,

c. * ...

d. Alpine buildings.

1. The obligation of property owners involved in structural improvements to bear costs is governed by the Perimeter Ordinance.

2. If, in the case of joint enterprises, contributions related to individual properties, works, or facilities are reduced or cost shares are excluded as ineligible for contribution, the corresponding cost shares must be transferred to the owner of the respective property.

1. For the contributions of the owners towards structural improvements, there exists a statutory lien that takes precedence over other liens in rank, without requiring entry in the land register, specifically for construction cost contributions for a period of ten years and for operating and maintenance costs for a period of two years, each from their due date.

1. The canton may, including the municipality's share according to § 38, grant contributions

a. to the eligible costs of agricultural high-rise buildings in accordance with federal legal requirements,

b. for all other structural improvements up to a maximum of 55 percent of the eligible costs.

2. Contributions are to be granted on a lump-sum basis if possible.

3. The government council regulates the maximum rates for the individual measures and works in the ordinance.

1. The procedure and conditions for granting contributions are regulated by the governing council.

1. The Cantonal Council allocates an annual framework credit in the budget for the support of structural improvements.

1. Municipalities participate with a share of 25 percent in the contribution according to § 35 paragraph 1.

2. For measures with significant benefits for individual municipalities, they can provide additional contributions.

1. The government council shall regulate the procedure for structural improvements. The participation of municipalities in the implementation of individual measures and projects must be ensured.

2. Joint measures and projects are considered approved if at least one-third of the landowners, who also own more than half of the affected land, agree to the undertaking. Landowners who do not participate in the decision-making process are deemed to be in agreement.

3. The government council may order structural improvements on its own initiative if they are obviously in the public interest.

4. The canton may pre-finance preliminary projects.

1. The involved landowners must tolerate all work and facilities necessary for structural improvements on their properties free of charge. If these involve property restrictions according to Article 962, paragraph 1 of the Swiss Civil Code of December 10, 1907 (ZGB), they must be noted in the land register.

2. Reserved are claims arising from property restrictions similar to expropriation.

1. For service roads, the Road Act applies, insofar as it does not provide for special regulations.

1. The Government Council regulates the procedure for land consolidation.

2. It appoints an appraisal commission, a land consolidation commission, and a cost distribution commission for land consolidations.

1. During the land consolidation process, any transfer of ownership of properties within the area of reference, encumbrance with extraction rights, or development with new buildings and operational facilities requires approval from the competent authority. Approval shall be denied if it impedes the land consolidation.

1. Prior to the decision to implement land consolidation, the municipality, in collaboration with the competent cantonal authorities, must provisionally designate protection zones, special use zones, and interconnected ecological compensation areas.

1. For the construction of agricultural roads, access routes, and other public facilities necessary for the redistribution of land, a uniform percentage deduction must be made from the land value contributed by all landowners.

2. The demand for land for public purposes, as well as for protection zones and ecological compensation areas, must be covered by voluntary acquisition or the contribution of other land. If this is not possible, the government council is authorized to make a further percentage deduction from the contributed land value, which must be compensated at market value.

3. The allocation of costs shall be governed by the provisions of nature and landscape protection legislation.

1. Based on Article 56 paragraph 1a of the Federal Act on Rural Land Rights, corporations established for the purpose of land improvements have the right of preemption on agricultural and forestry plots within their area of benefit, provided that the acquisition serves the corporation's purpose.

1. The federal legal provisions are applicable mutatis mutandis to the obligations for management and maintenance, the prohibition of misuse and further fragmentation, as well as the reimbursement of contributions.

1. Refunded Contributions Are to Be Reused for the Support of Structural Improvements.

1. Sections 39, 40, 42, 43, and 45 of this Act are also applicable to forestry improvements.

1. The Agricultural Credit Bank of the Canton of Lucerne implements the provisions regarding operational aids and investment loans of the Federal Act on Agriculture and manages the Cantonal Agricultural Fund.

2. The "Lucerne Agricultural Guarantee Foundation" is responsible for the guaranteeing of loans.

1. The canton shall provide the Agricultural Credit Bank with the necessary financial means, if required, to release federal operational aid funds.

1. The Canton maintains an Agricultural Fund.

2. The purpose of the Cantonal Agricultural Fund is to provide financial support to farmers and smaller agricultural self-help organizations.

3. The financial support is provided exclusively through the granting of interest-free, repayable loans. The maximum amount of these loans is limited to three times the yield value of the agricultural property per case.

1. The Fund is financed through

a. interest-free deposits from the canton based on a framework credit charged to the investment account,

b. interest-free deposits or donations from natural and legal persons,

c. repayments of granted loans.

1. Funds from the fund can only be disbursed when one's own resources and credit options have been exhausted, insofar as it is reasonable.

2. To promote measures in accordance with § 55 paragraphs 1b and d as well as § 62, loans can be granted even within the credit options.

3. Funds that are solely intended for internal augmentation will only be disbursed when a balanced nutrient balance is present.

1. Loans may be granted from the Agricultural Fund for

a. measures in accordance with Articles 79(1) and 105(1) of the Federal Act on Agriculture,

b. the construction of facilities for the utilization of alternative energy sources,

c. the construction or renovation of manure management and wastewater disposal facilities,

d. the promotion of specialty crops, new production branches, and nature-oriented production methods,

e. the promotion of inter-farm cooperation.

2. Loans may also be granted as a supplement to other public and private investment aids and contributions.

3. For the granting of cantonal agricultural credits, unless otherwise regulated in this Act, the provisions of the Federal Act on Agriculture shall apply mutatis mutandis.

1. Competent Authorities within the Meaning of Article 90 of the Federal Act on Agricultural Land Rights (BGBB) are

a. the competent office acting as the approving authority pursuant to Articles 60-65 and 76 paragraph 2 BGBB; it consults experts for advice as needed,

b. the competent department acting as the supervisory authority pursuant to Article 83 paragraph 3 BGBB,

c. * the municipality for the annotation in the land register pursuant to Article 86 BGBB.

1. As agricultural enterprises in the sense of Articles 5 paragraph a and 7 of the BGBB, agricultural operations are considered that have a workload of at least

a. * 0.6 Standard Labor Units (SLU) in mountainous areas,

b. * 0.8 SLU in the hill zone,

c. * 1.0 SLU in the valley zone.

1. Competent Authorities within the Meaning of Article 53 of the Federal Act on Agricultural Tenancy are

a. the responsible office as the approval authority; it consults experts for advice as needed,

b. * the municipality as the authority entitled to lodge objections.

1. The descendants of the lessor of an agricultural enterprise, who wish to farm it themselves and are qualified to do so, have the pre-lease right within the meaning of agricultural lease law.

1. The competent authority promotes ecological management through training, consultation, and education. It closely cooperates with agricultural educational centers and advisory services.

1. The canton promotes environmentally friendly production methods that are beneficial to a richly structured cultural landscape, particularly organic farming and integrated production. It also supports measures aimed at achieving a balanced nutrient budget, such as the reduction of livestock by means of

a. grants and loans,

b. transitional contributions during the conversion period for farms transitioning to organic farming,

c. advisory services, continuing education, surveys and experiments, as well as

d. soil examinations.

1. The Cantonal Council provides multi-year framework credits for cantonal contributions and loans.

1. ...

1. The canton may promote the preservation of endangered valuable and regionally typical genetic resources of animals and plants.

1. The Government Council issues directives on the ecological minimum requirements for the management of state-owned agricultural enterprises. The state-owned enterprises should be managed according to the guidelines of Integrated Production (IP) or Organic Farming. These directives are to be considered in the lease agreements.

1. The canton may support cantonal or regional breeding organizations within the framework of performance agreements. It may also provide contributions to cantonal and regional livestock exhibitions and to the promotion of self-help measures for the marketing of breeding livestock.

1. The canton promotes collaborative production methods between the mountains and the valleys in livestock farming.

2. It may support measures to maintain a well-functioning market system.

1. To cover the damage suffered by owners of breeding animals due to loss from illness and accident, livestock insurance cooperatives may be established as public law entities.

2. The organization, mandatory insurance, scope of the insurance, member contributions, supervision, as well as the appraisal and compensation for damages are regulated by the government council in an ordinance.

1. The canton promotes plant cultivation particularly through the education and training of farmers, as well as through the implementation of measures prescribed by federal and cantonal law.

1. The competent authority collaborates with municipalities to promote crop cultivation and plant protection.

2. It may order specific land uses for soil protection and combating soil erosion if a risk can be demonstrated. If these involve restrictions on property as per Article 962, paragraph 1 of the Civil Code, they must be recorded in the land register.

3. It establishes an official list of recommended grape varieties and sets the conditions for wine production and classification.

4. The government council regulates the details.

1. The canton maintains a state vineyard.

1. The canton promotes the protection of cultivated plants against hazardous diseases and pests in accordance with federal regulations while ensuring the maintenance of the best possible biological and ecological balance.

1. The Government Council may declare diseases and pests of local significance as hazardous to the public.

1. Any person who, on the property they cultivate or when placing plants, plant parts, plant products, production means, and items of any kind into circulation, identifies or believes to perceive generally dangerous diseases and pests must promptly report it to the competent authority.

1. The competent authority may order the necessary protective measures to prevent the spread of notifiable public health-threatening diseases and pests for the entire canton or for limited areas. If no other suitable and economically viable control is possible, it may order the destruction of the infestation sources.

3. The canton may support the grazing and summering of livestock with appropriate means.

4. The government council shall regulate the details, in particular by determining the amount of contributions within the framework of budget estimates.

1. Forest properties that belong to an agricultural business are part of the farming existence.

1. The canton supports agricultural forestry in the interest of preserving and maintaining the cultural landscape, as well as ensuring the legally established protective and compensatory functions of the forest. It promotes forest management alongside accompanying measures, as well as the sale and use of domestic wood.

1. The canton may support efforts to protect the designation of Lucerne quality products, including in particular designations of origin, regional origin designations, quality marks, and seals of quality.

2. The canton may support measures undertaken for the authenticity and quality assurance of Lucerne agricultural products.

1. The canton promotes new branches of production, specialized crops, and production methods, as well as other earning opportunities, particularly when these contribute to market relief in other sectors and to income improvement on individual farms.

2. The canton may also promote the processing and marketing of agricultural products, especially local specialties, with appropriate measures.

1. The canton may grant contributions to events and agricultural exhibitions of regional and supra-regional significance that promote the production and sale of agricultural products and help improve the consumers' understanding of agriculture.

1. The canton promotes measures for energy savings and the production of alternative energies in agriculture.

1. The canton contributes to the eligible costs for remedying natural disaster damage. The government council regulates the details, particularly the amount of the contributions. Reductions are possible if reasonable insurance has not been obtained.

2. The competent office determines the amount of damage, based on the guidelines and practice of the Swiss Fund for Aid for Uninsurable Natural Disasters, in collaboration with the municipalities.

3. The municipalities designate a person responsible for the assessment.

1. The canton may, within the framework of spatial planning and environmental protection legislation, enable supplementary income opportunities on agricultural enterprises for the farming population.

1. The Canton promotes

a. self-help measures by professional organizations in favor of the production and marketing of agricultural products, as well as

b. the organization and deployment of farm and family assistance services.

1. The canton may promote activities for the preservation and further development of the rural culture that are of general interest.

1. The Cantonal Government issues, pursuant to Article 359 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO), a standard employment contract for agricultural employment relationships.

2. The standard employment contract also applies to agricultural apprenticeships, insofar as it is more favorable for apprentices compared to the apprenticeship contract.

1. All orders issued under the application of this Act can be contested according to the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.

2. Orders under this Act, issued jointly and simultaneously with the necessary permits and orders for buildings and facilities in the same matter, are contestable according to the applicable provisions of the Planning and Building Act, the Roads Act, the Pathways Act, or the Water Construction Act.

3. Orders in the procedure for agricultural land consolidation are contestable according to the applicable provisions of the Planning and Building Act, insofar as §§ 86-101 of the Planning and Building Act apply to this procedure.

4. Different provisions of the federal government remain reserved.

1. Anyone who, through fraudulent actions and means, false statements, or violations of this law and its enforcement provisions, gains or attempts to gain advantages shall forfeit, irrespective of any criminal proceedings, the claims to contributions and premiums. Contributions and premiums already received must be refunded.

2. The competent authority may refuse contribution payments for a specified period.

1. The Government Council shall issue the regulations and ordinances necessary for the execution of this law, unless other authorities are declared competent.

2. To the extent and as long as new execution regulations and ordinances have not been issued, the existing enactments shall apply as execution provisions, provided they do not contradict this law.

1. The following enactments are repealed

a. Act on Management Contributions for Agriculturally Used Hill and Steep Slopes of 30 November 1981,

b. Act on Support for Soil Improvements of 14 May 1957,

c. Act concerning Land Consolidations and Settlements of 14 July 1930,

d. Act on the Promotion of Animal Breeding of 27 June 1961,

e. Act on Livestock Insurance of 15 May 1946,

f. Act on the Protection of Plants from Generally Hazardous Diseases of 5 December 1989.

1. Applications that have not yet been decided at the time this law comes into force and the legal remedies pending before the government council are to be decided according to the new law, while the pending administrative court appeals are to be decided according to the previous law.

1. Anyone who has received annual management contributions for the agricultural use of steep slopes shall be given priority consideration with respect to maintenance agreements under the Nature and Landscape Conservation Act until July 1, 2001.

1. The law shall enter into force on January 1, 1996. It is subject to an optional referendum.