Slovakia has the third best conditions for growing agricultural crops within the entire European Union (EU), said Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba after a meeting with local farmers in Detva. Nevertheless, according to him, we are among the EU states that are the least self-sufficient in food production. He added that with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Richard Takač they talked about the government's draft law on nature and landscape protection.
“Slovakia has always been an agricultural country. We have beautiful forests and it is not that the farmers would not want them here. The farmers make sure that the agricultural land is well utilized. 200 000 acres of agricultural land disappeared in Slovakia just because of the overgrown woods, that downgrade the land and ruin the biodiversity,” explains Taraba.
The new legislation is intended to improve food self-sufficiency and reduce the bureaucratic difficulty in land management, especially in cases where it involves the removal of encroached trees and bushes. The easier removal of trees brought about by the new legislation is also supposed to make the landscape more transparent. It should also be a preventive measure to reduce dangerous encounters with bears. The amendment to the Act on Nature and Landscape Protection does not apply to forests, parks, urban greenery and land intended for construction.
Zdroj: TASR
