Moscow, 17 January 2018. PenzaNews. Over 240,000 hectares of unused agricultural land were put into circulation in the Penza region from 2015 to 2017. This was reported by the governor Ivan Belozertsev.

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"At the beginning of 2015, 434,000 hectares of arable land in the Penza region were not used in agriculture. This was mainly land of citizens and agricultural enterprises including parcelled land whose owners failed to use it in accordance with the legislation," he said at the meeting headed by Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and held in Moscow on Wednesday, January 17.

Ivan Belozertsev explained that an interdepartmental working group had been established, which ensured interaction between regional executive authorities, state land surveillance bodies and the federal tax service.

"We carried out a complete inventory of all agricultural land in the territory of the Penza region, drew up a register of unused land plots with indication of their location, area, condition, rightholders and type of the right. All unused land was mapped. Individual response measures were then defined and applied to each owner," the region head shared the experience.

He added that agricultural producers who had serious intentions to develop the production were provided with necessary measures of state support.

Ivan Belozertsev also noted that the result of putting the land into circulation had allowed increasing the growth rate of agricultural production – over the last three years it had equalled 22%, the press service of the regional government reports.