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Alarm bells over provision of prime agricultural land to renewable energy investors

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The state policy of providing land in irrigated reforestation areas and high-productivity agricultural ones to renewable energy investors endangers the Mediterranean island’s farming and livestock production.

This is a hot issue which came under discussion on Tuesday before the House Agriculture Committee, Philenews reports.

Representatives of agricultural and environmental organisations as well as the hunters’ federation rang alarm bells pointing out that everyone acknowledges the need to preserve this land for agriculture.

Yet, it is also obvious that loopholes in the legislation allow for the destruction of vast areas of land for energy production rather than food production.

Cultivated land and pasture land are being reserved for the installation of photovoltaic parks, resulting in the shrinking of highly productive land.

Committee members will soon invite political bosses to give answers as to whether they share the existing policy or whether they aim to change it forbidding the use of fertile land and land reforestation for anything else other than agricultural purposes only.

Further, they requested that the relevant authorities provide information on the companies, the area of land and the location where they have secured permits for photovoltaic parks on fertile agricultural land.

Opposition MPs argued that, in some areas, permits were granted after interventions serving specific business interests.

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