Residents of the Vitebsk region can lease up to 3 hectares of land for personal farming

Residents of the Vitebsk region can lease up to 3 hectares of land for personal subsidiary farming. This measure is provided for by the regional program for the development and support of personal subsidiary farming for 2011-2015, which was approved today at an extraordinary session by the deputies of the Vitebsk Regional Council, a BELTA correspondent reports. Local executive committees, within their competence and in accordance with the law, may, depending on local conditions and specifics, grant citizens, upon their applications, additional land plots of up to 3 hectares for lease for personal subsidiary farming. Owners of personal subsidiary farms, based on agreements with agricultural organizations, will be provided with the opportunity to move part of the land plots to crop rotation fields to change crop predecessors, and to combat pests and plant diseases. Rural executive committees may, upon citizens' requests, organize collective potato cultivation on the lands of rural settlements. This will allow for wider use of mechanization and intensive crop cultivation technologies. The program also provides that organizations engaged in the cultivation of seed potatoes, together with consumer cooperatives, will plan production volumes taking into account the sale of seed material to the population. The authorities also intend to provide comprehensive support to citizens engaged in animal husbandry and beekeeping. According to the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Agriculture and Food Committee, 157,000 families in the region have personal subsidiary farms. They own 117,000 hectares of arable land. The share of agricultural products produced on personal plots is 35% of the total agricultural production in the region. The population supplies 100,000 tons of milk annually. According to the regional agricultural department, the implementation of this program will improve the economic situation of citizens engaged in personal subsidiary farming.