The State will take over more than 20 parcels of land of more than 420 hectares granted to research institutions and state specialised farms.

On Wednesday, the government decided to take over 188.3 hectares of land plots from the Alytus Vocational Training Centre, Klaipėda Ernests Galvanauskas Vocational Training Centre, Panevėžys Vocational Training Centre, Raseiniai School of Technology and Business, Smalininkai School of Technology and Business, Šilutė Vocational Training Centre and Utena Regional Vocational Training Centre.

„(A working group established by order of the Minister of Education, Science and Sports – BNS) (...) has determined that 11 state land plots are not needed for educational purposes by educational and training institutions“, – the draft government decision prepared by the Ministry of Environment states. 

In addition, a 68.5 ha plot granted to Marijampolė College will be taken over, as well as 15 specialised farms –  „Šilutės veislininkystei“, Lietuvos žirgynsi, „Panevėžio veislininkystei“ and Valstybinei augulininkystės tarnyba – granted a total of 167.7 ha.  &p

According to the Ministry, Marijampolė College claimed that the plot is used as a place of practice for accounting and finance and sustainable business management (agribusiness specialization) study programmes, the institution did not provide any arguments as to why the whole large plot is needed for this practice. 

According to the Ministry, some of the specialised farms also do not use plots or parts of plots, and will therefore be included in the pool of free state land.

For its part, it has been decided to allocate two newly created plots of 39.7 and 61.2 hectares to the State Crop Production Service.