Farmland programme completes century-long plans, says minister

Budapest, October 26 (MTI) – The government’s farmland privatisation programme will take to fruition an idea started nearly a hundred years ago by smallholders, Hungary’s farm minister said in his expose in parliament on Monday.

Addressing lawmakers ahead of a parliamentary debate on the government’s plans to auction off farmland, Sandor Fazekas said plans were to put 20 percent of state land into the hands of farmers. The move is set to strengthen family farming and improve farmers’ livelihoods and competitiveness, he said. The government has the farmers’ best interests at heart, as becoming owners they will not have to pay a lease. The move will strengthen small farms against big companies and will protect land from being bought by foreigners, he added.

Fazekas told a press conference on the sidelines of the parliamentary debate that the opposition had created a “league” against farmland sale plans and will “do anything to prevent Hungarian land being owned by Hungarian farmers, who cultivate it”.

He said auctions would start mid-November and the cap on the size of land to be sold will be set at 300 hectares. Some 80 percent of land up for auction are 10 hectares or smaller, he added. The aim is to help local farmers increase the size of their existing land, he added.

Source: Farmland programme completes century-long plans, says minister