The Ministry of the Environment will investigate the extent to which the restriction on holding more than 500 hectares of land per farm or its affiliates is now being circumvented.

Ramūnas Krugelis, deputy minister of environment, says that the former government's ambitions for the sale of state land will also be reviewed. 

„First we need to analyse the situation, which is what we are currently doing – the State Data Agency has requested information. We will see how widespread this or that circumvention or abuse is. If there is a law, it must work. Then we will see what steps to take to make that long-standing law come into force," the deputy minister told BNS on Tuesday after a meeting with representatives of the Chamber of Agriculture. 

„We will not ask for data on people (and companies – BNS), we will ask for the overall situation – how many such cases there are. In order to find a systemic solution. We will not go one by one. Once we know the information, we will take the next step. It will probably not depend on a single Ministry of Environment," Krugel added.

 He said ways will be sought to stop large landowners from acquiring more land, especially as state leaders are talking about the possible sale of public land to raise more money for defence. 

„There is talk of further sales of state land and then we are back to a situation where those who have a lot of land in ways that may not be entirely legal will once again be able to acquire contiguous land. It was agreed to resolve this issue, to make the law (on the 500 ha „ceiling“ – BNS) work and then to address the issue of the sale of state land for defence purposes“, – BNS quoted the deputy minister as saying. 

  Vice-Chairman of the Chamber of Agriculture Vytautas Buivydas told BNS that at the meeting it was clarified what should be done in order to ensure that the law          on the prohibition to acquire more than 500 ha is not circumvented.  

„Those who have the potential to work the land cannot buy it, and when it goes to companies, it is no longer sold as land, but mostly as shares. Companies are sold with the land“, – BNS claimed.  

According to Buivydas, the situation of agriculture is bad in many EU countries, which is why Brussels is already discussing whether to scrap support for farming. In Lithuania, too, he said, discussions need to start on the size of farms that should be supported. 

„Support loses its meaning in order to maintain the vitality of villages, which is discouraged if large concentrations of land are placed in the hands of a few or a few dozen people. There is the example of Hungary, where the government bought up land and received European investment," said Mr Buivydas. 

„We are putting the whole issue of rural support at stake“, – he added.  

According to Mr Buivydas, there are currently 2.2 million hectares of arable land in Lithuania.