Azerbaijan implements satellite monitoring to track cultivated land

Agriculture Minister Majnun Mammadov announced that Azerbaijan monitors between 10% and 12% of declared cultivated land every year to detect farming violations.

The ministry uses these checks to find cases where farmers fail to cultivate land, farm in unauthorized locations, or report incorrect production volumes. When officials identify these deviations, they impose penalties that can last one to two years. Farmers who violate rules also lose their current year subsidies and face a two year ban on future payments.

Mammadov stated that the government now uses satellite technology to reduce human error and oversee land use more accurately. While the ministry investigates coordinate discrepancies between actual farm locations and property documents, it allows for a 10% to 20% margin of error. If a discrepancy falls within this range, the government still approves the subsidy payments for those farmers.