The Ministry of Agriculture has drafted amendments to the Law on the Acquisition of Land for Agricultural Purposes and accompanying laws. They aim to address long-standing problems in the efficient use of state land and the formation of agricultural land plots, while maximising the economic benefits for the State. At present, sub-letting of state land often leads to profit-making at the expense of the people who work the land.

The amendments aim to enable people who work on land to acquire leased state agricultural land plots and unused state land plots interspersed between private plots.

Safeguards have been put in place to prevent speculation on state land. Priority for acquiring contiguous plots of state land will be given to persons who have acquired a smaller area of agricultural land from the state and to farmers who have been actively engaged in agriculture for at least three years and have submitted supporting documents. One person will be able to acquire state agricultural land in no more than two adjacent municipalities.

Today, there are 310,000 hectares of state agricultural land in Lithuania, which is expected to generate up to EUR 1.5 billion in revenue.

The proposed amendments, if approved by the Parliament, will reduce the amount of abandoned land, and will generate revenue for the state from unused state land. The money raised from the sale of state agricultural land will be allocated to the National Defence Fund, which will significantly contribute to strengthening national defence.