BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 28
By Tamilla Mammadova - Trend:
On the initiative of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and by the decision of the government of Georgia, land owners, both individuals and legal entities, will be exempted from land reclamation fees throughout 2020, said Georgian Prime Minister Georgi Gakharia, Trend reports citing EastFruit analytical portal.
In addition, according to the prime minister, the debt to the state-owned Land Reclamation of Georgia LLC through irrigation and drainage of agricultural plots accumulated during 2012-2019 will be fully written off from individuals and legal entities. The total amount of this debt is about 8 million lari ($2.5 million).
According to Gakharia, these benefits were introduced to mitigate the economic losses of farmers and agricultural producers due to spread of the COVID-19.
Reclamation services in Georgia are provided by the Land Reclamation of Georgia LLC. The price for irrigation of farmland is set at 75 lari ($23.4) per 1 ha for Eastern Georgia and 45 lari ($14.1) for each ha for Western Georgia. The tariff for land drainage is the same and amounts to 40 lari ($12.5) per 1 ha.
According to official data, at the beginning of 2020, the area of irrigation land in Georgia was 130,000 ha, drainage was carried out on an area of 39,500 ha.
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