Yesterday, the issues arising from the non-renewal of the lease contracts for government-owned farms and plots in the district of Paphos were discussed in the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture.
Valentinos Fakontis, the member of the committee and AKEL MP for Paphos, stated that for a decade now, the state has not renewed the lease contracts for the farmers holding the plots, resulting in serious problems in the agriculture of the Paphos district and significant loss of state revenue.
The problem primarily focuses on the plots of the Municipality of Geroskipou and the communities of Acheleia, Kouklia, Kissonerga, and Mandria, involving vast areas of fertile agricultural land, he clarified.
Today, farmers live in a state of uncertainty and become victims of exploitation and vandalism by various opportunists. The phenomenon of crop destruction is very common.
Some exploit this state of uncertainty and draw the subsidies derived from the farms, with the state turning a blind eye, Fakontis denounced, urging the government to release the plots linked to the Eden City investment on Geroskipou beach, which was never realized, so that the plots can be returned to the farmers.
He also called on the relevant ministries to proceed as soon as possible with the reassignment of the plots and government farms to farmers, emphasizing that the government has a duty to ensure that these fertile agricultural land areas, among the most fertile in the region, will be protected and made available for agricultural use.
