Solution in sight for Mezőhegyes stud farm

Budapest (MTI) – The main owner of the Mezőhegyes stud farm, in south-east Hungary, and the government have struck a provisional agreement to keep the farm in one piece rather than dividing it up, while the state will buy up the shares of farmers who won state-owned farmland in an auction, the daily Népszabadsag reported on Saturday.

The significance of the deal is that continuity would be maintained, and the several hundred people working on the land would be able to keep their jobs and can remain within the company. Further, equipment would also stay under one roof and water supply for 1,200 residents would not be withdrawn, the paper said.

Opposition parties had protested against the government’s original decision to auction off farmland belonging to the state-owned Mezőhegyes stud farm, arguing that it was against basic legal order to carve up land and sell properties which were currently being leased.

The government had wanted to reorganise the Mezőhegyes stud farm and classify it as a “model farm” after what they insisted were several years of mismanagement under private owners.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters