Economy Materials 4 November 2023 14:13 (UTC +04:00)
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 4. With strict observance of security rules in Azerbaijani territories liberated from Armenian occupation, 10,000 hectares were brought into sowing turnover in the 2020–2021 economic year, 50,000 hectares in the 2021–2022 economic year, and 72,000 hectares in the 2022–2023 economic year, Agriculture Minister Majnun Mammadov said, Trend reports.
He spoke at the public hearings in Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis (Parliament) on “Combating Mine Threat: Impact of Explosives on the Ecosystem.”.
He noted that the data he mentioned represents only 60 percent of the potential areas. Thus, 40 percent of the land area is still not suitable for crop cultivation due to the mine threat.
Mammadov emphasized that mine contamination in these areas is so high that, despite all security measures, incidents are inevitable. According to the Mine Action Agency, 10 mine ruptures occurred during agricultural activities in the liberated areas, injuring 8 people and killing 7. A total of six pieces of agricultural equipment were damaged and rendered inoperable.
“At the same time, Armenia has turned our agricultural lands into a battlefield for many years and caused serious damage to their fertility. In the course of monitoring the land resources of those territories, it was found that trenches and fortifications 2,000 kilometers long and covering an area of about 4,200 hectares had been built, exposing the land to drastic anthropogenic erosion. Planted areas heavily contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance amount to about 5,000 hectares,” the minister added.
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