You're reading: Rada passes at first reading bill changing rules of using land masses

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed at first reading bill No. 6049-d aimed at settling the issue of collective ownership to land, improving the rules of using land in land masses and stimulating irrigation.

A total of 251 lawmakers backed the bill on May 22.

According to the document, land of collective agricultural enterprises, which stopped operating, are transferred to ownership of a community, on the territory of which it is located.

If before 2020, members of existing collective agricultural enterprises do not distribute land, it would be considered that they quitted rights to land. These land parcels would be transferred to municipal ownership under a court ruling. Local self-government agencies have the right to lease collective land until citizens register ownership rights to them.

The bill introduces the notion of farmland masses. Farmers would be able to exchange land parcels within the land masses, sign sublease contracts without consent of landlords, lease field roads and optimize cultivated areas. Farmers who own or use over 75 percent of the land mass would have advantage before other users of the land mass.

The bill approved the rules of stocktaking of land parcels. It must be conducted before the creation of land masses.

Bill No. 6049-d foresees protections of rights of farmers who improve and restore irrigation systems.