“Erasmus+” mobility visit: the LANDNET workshop in North Macedonia
The 13th International LANDNET workshop took place from 25 to 27 May in Skopje, North Macedonia. The workshop was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (UN FAO REUT) in partnership with the University St. Cyril Methodius in Skopje, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, and the Delegation of the European Union.
The event brought together representatives from governments and the private sector, NGOs, universities and research institutes from Europe and the Central Asia region to discuss on land tenure topics such as land consolidation, land banking, state land management, land abandonment and land market development.
Dr. Giedrius Pašakarnis, lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Land Management and Geomatics, at Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (VMU AA), took part in the seminar, taking an advantage of the opportunity provided by Erasmus+ programme funding.
On the first day of the workshop, the focus was on land banking instruments and the launch of a new UN FAO initiative on capacity development for land consolidation and land banking. Lecturer dr. G. Pašakarnis shared with the participants his experience on how the Department of Land Management and Geomatics of VMU AA educates future land consolidation projects professionals.
On the second day of the event, the focus was on the introduction of land consolidation in North Macedonia with presentations in the morning and a field trip to land consolidation project areas in Bitola municipality in the afternoon. It is important to mention that back in 2017, lecturer dr. G. Pašakarnis, as an international expert working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, advised the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of North Macedonia on the selection of the areas in which it would be the most feasible to start land consolidation projects, where the municipality of Bitola was selected as one of the most suitable candidates.
The participants of the seminar were impressed by the results of the 336 ha land consolidation project in the Egri cadastral area, Bitola municipality: implementing land consolidation project, project planners were able to consolidate land parcels so that the average parcel size has increased from 0.38 hectares to 1.30 hectares, the fragmentation of land has been reduced from 874 to 260 parcels, a new roads and irrigation infrastructure was developed, and in the end, all participating farmers in the area have been very happy with the project results.
Consolidated fragmented land parcels in Ergi, Bitola municipality
Developed a new irrigation infrastructure
Developed a new rational road infrastructure
Landowners and farmers were very satisfied with the land consolidation project results
On the final day of the seminar, the focus was mainly on the reduction of abandoned land. After the seminar, lecturer dr. G. Pašakarnis visited the University St. Cyril Methodius in Skopje, Faculty of Civil Engineering where dr. Marijana Lazarevska, Vice Dean for Science and International Cooperation, dr. Gjorgji Gjorgjiev, Lecturer, and dr. Zlatko Srbinoski, Dean of the Faculty, presented the study programmes, the research facilities and the students’ work.
VMU Agriculture Academy has signed a cooperation agreement with the University St. Cyril Methodius in Skopje, Faculty of Civil Engineering, so from now on lecturers and PhD students can go on short-term Erasmus visits. The faculty lecturers invited VMU Agriculture Academy researchers to collaborate on research in water engineering, road and civil engineering, environmental protection, geodesy and geoinformation technologies, to participate in Erasmus+ researcher mobility programmes and to submit scientific articles to their journal “Scientific Journal of Civil Engineering”.
Lecturer dr. Giedrius Pašakarnis with dr. Marijana Lazarevska, Vice Dean for Science and International Cooperation of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and lecturer dr. Gjorgji Gjorgjiev
Lect. Giedrius Pašakarnis
