Bashkortostan Agriculture Ministry commented on Greenpeace’s report on unused land

UFA, 28 May 2019. /Bashinform News Agency, Azat Gizatullin/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The Greenpeace environmental organization conducted a study and concluded that “about 80 million hectares of agricultural land is vacant in Russia. Most of these lands are located in Bashkiria - 4.2 million hectares, or 30% of the region. It is followed by Novosibirsk, Tver, Smolensk, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod regions, Tatarstan, the Altai Territory, and the Perm Territory, with Kurgan region closing the top-10”, the study says.

Greenpeace clarifies that “if the forest is intensively grown on abandoned lands, then gradually it would be possible to increase timber harvesting by 35% to 288 million cubic meters per year and create 97,440 additional permanent jobs".

The Greenpeace data that 4.2 million hectares of agricultural land are not used in Bashkortostan is incorrect, Azat Mukhametshin, head of the plant growing and feed production department of the Ministry of Agriculture RB believes. He notes that in the region there are 7.3 million hectares of agricultural land, of which 3.6 million hectares are arable land, 3.3 million hectares are forage lands. The rest is land unsuitable for agricultural use.

“We agree that there is unused arable land in the republic,” says Azat Mukhametshin. “But no more than 190 thousand hectares. All data on the area of ​​land is confirmed by the Directorate of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre, and Cartography of the Republic of Bashkortostan," the expert says.