Treasury’s agricultural lands to be offered to farmers to rent for half price: Minister

ANKARA

Nearly 3.4 billion square meters of agricultural land owned by the Turkish Treasury will be offered to farmers to rent for half of their actual price for up to a 10-year period, according to two Turkish ministers.

In a press conference on Sept. 14 to announce the project, Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum and Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said that more than 218,000 farmers are expected to benefit from the project.

Saying that farmers would later be offered an opportunity to buy these lands, Kurum noted: “This initiative comprises of nearly 3.4 billion square meters of land. As the Environment and Urbanization Ministry, we put this initiative to our 100-day action plan. We will enable farmers to rent agricultural lands owned by the Treasury for half of their price for up to 10 years.”

He noted that for the lands to be available for rent they should be used before Dec. 31, 2017 for a three-year period.

“Farmers should pay 25 percent of the rent in cash and will be able to pay the remaining amount in two installments,” Kurum said, adding that the deadline for applications to the initiative was set as Nov. 19.

He also noted that farmers would be able to use these lands only for agricultural reasons.