(Ecofin Agency) - Abdelkader Bouazghi (photo), Algerian minister of agriculture, rural development and fishery, said that two million ha of agricultural lands remain unused in the country. This was during a meeting of the finance and budget committee of the People's Congress (NPC).

“Until now, we have recorded 2 million ha of unused agricultural lands. This represents 25% of the overall agricultural lands estimated to 8 million ha” he said quoted by Algérie Eco.

This situation worries the government. In order to tackle this issue, “more than 20,000 acts of concession of agricultural land in the State’s private domain” have been issued and “the ministry’s services work to convince owners to comply with the relevant departments’ requirements to obtain property documents”.