Armenia toughens control over agricultural land
YEREVAN, February 11. /ARKA/. The Parliament of Armenian has passed today in the second and final reading a set of amendments to the Land Code which rule out an unjustified change of the category of agricultural land for construction or industrial purposes.
Deputy economy minister Arman Khojoyan said the amended law also provides a legal framework to the relevant government agency to identify and create a database of unused agricultural land.
According to the deputy minister, under the law now it is the government that will determine the criteria and parameters for determining agricultural land as unused.
“There are numerous cases of uncultivated, unproductive or inappropriate use of agricultural land in all the regions of the country, but there is no procedure for defining them as unused. The changes will allow to take stock of such land, analyze the reasons for their non-use, develop programs and attract investments,” Khojoyan said.
He stressed that the revised law is aimed at clarifying the reasons for non-use of agricultural land either due to irrigation, land degradation or other problems.
According to the ministry's estimates, today out of 444,800 hectares of arable land in Armenia, only 222,000 (about 48.8%) are used for agriculture. –0--