Government strengthens measures against misuse of land
By Vusala Abbasova
Azerbaijan actively fights against the misuse of land in the country to increase its agricultural production.
To this end, the Azerbaijani government will amend the Act on Amendments in the Code of Administrative Offences under the presidential order of November 3.
Under the changes to the legislature, Article 70 will be fully eliminated, while Article 88-1 of the Code will undergo a range of changes.
Among these changes are modifications to the fines charged for misusing land: Individuals will be fined 300 manats (over $285.85); officials, 600 manats (over $571.7); and legal entities, 3,000 manats (over $2,858).
Similarly, under the amendments, when land dedicated to agricultural processing is misused by individuals, the fine will be 500 manats (over $476), while the fines for officials and legal entities are 1,000 manats (over $952) and 5,000 manats (over $4,764), respectively.
Economy expert Ogtay Hagverdiyev lauded the changes made to the legislature on land usage. In his opinion, the presidential decree will significantly reduce the incidence of land misuse in the country.
Hagverdiyev noted that the country disposes of 1.4 million hectares of cultivable land, which was distributed among farmers in the '90s.
Over time, the farmers began selling their plots of land to others who weren't interested in farming, Hagverdiyev said. As a result, the cultivable land was used for other purposes, and many fenced houses have been constructed on it.
The expert believes the amendments to the law would help the Ministry of Agriculture rectify this situation and ensure the land is used according to its intended purpose.
The government also intends to resolve problems related to the control over the use of land in a bid to increase the amount of land being distributed to the nation’s citizens.
As the third-largest industry in Azerbaijan, after oil and construction, agriculture provides the highest number of jobs. This industry also has a significant influence on poverty reduction in rural areas.
Currently, the country provides each citizen with only 0.2 hectares of arable land, which is one of the lowest levels of land distribution per capita.
But the situation has worsened because of the Armenian occupation of over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, since the early 1990s.
The occupation is one of the main reasons for the low level of land distribution throughout the country.
Only 4.5 million of more than 8.6 million hectares of land in Azerbaijan can be used for agriculture, with irrigated lands reaching 1.3 million hectares. These lands grow 85 percent of the country's crops, though 41.8 percent of the land has suffered varying degrees of erosion due to complex geographical conditions and the impact of environmental pollution.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz