REUTERS
It was originally planned to allow one person to own up to 200,000 ha of farmland.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed that the concentration of farmland to be stipulated in a draft law on the land market be limited to 10,000 hectares (ha) per person.
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"There was a question about the concentration of land. Initially, 200,000 ha [per person] was proposed. That's a lot, I agree. The Committee [on Agricultural and Land Policy] considered the proposal to reduce it to 20,000 ha. Is it also too much? ... Well, is it okay to limit it to 10,000 ha?" Zelensky told a rural community on December 18 when visiting the village of Krasna Slobidka in Kyiv region.
"Let it be from 1 ha to 10,000 ha, and we'll consider this issue at the committee. Well, we will remove the concentration of [farmland] up to 50,000 ha, then up to 20,000 ha [from the bill]," he said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, a bill designed to launch the farmland market in Ukraine from October 1, 2020, passed its first reading in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on November 13.
The draft law stipulates limits on the ownership of more than 35% of the agricultural land in united territorial communities, 15% of the land in the country's regions, and 0.5% of farmland across Ukraine (about 200,000 ha per person).
Head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction David Arakhamia expects the draft law on the land market will be considered in the second reading at the current plenary week (December 16-20).