The Ministry of Defense has purchased a large piece of agricultural land in the area of Smilde, Bovensmilde and Hoogersmilde. The land is intended as compensation for farmers who lose country because of the expansion of the De Haar training ground.
The agricultural land was offered by a farmer at an auction last week, along with much more land in the north. The agricultural plots that matter are mainly on the west side of the Drentse Hoofdvaart towards Fochteloërveen and the provincial border with Friesland.
Defense would also have bought land near the center of Smilde. That land was mainly used for various crops, including potatoes, lilies, beets and corn.
The Ministry wants to say virtually nothing about the sale, except that the Central Government Real Estate Agency has been asked to actively buy land in the region. With this, the Ministry of Defense wants to compensate for the expansion of the military training grounds.
“That means that they register for public auctions and conduct conversations with landowners for defense and in coordination with Defense,” says a spokesperson for the ministry.
The Central Government Real Estate Agency confirms that Defense has bought the land in the vicinity of the land, but does not want to share anything about the details because the handling is still ongoing. According to farmers from the area, it would be between 140 and 170 hectares of land.
Defense wants to make De Haar training ground, a few kilometers away in Laaghalen and Laaghalveen, with about 300 hectares larger. Farmers who now live and work in that area must give up land or in some cases shut up their entire company.
Many residents have been complaining about poor communication for ages and think that the ministry has little attention to their interests. Farmers believe that the Ministry of Defense is now bothering them again, by buying land that they would have liked.
According to several sources, the Ministry of Defense would have offered 120,000 euros per hectare. That would amount to almost 18 million euros for the entire area. The ministry does not want to let anything go about that. According to the latest data from the Land Registry, the average price for a hectare of agricultural land in Drenthe is around 80,000 euros.
WILLEM VOSSEBELD party leader of the BBB in Provincial States calls the sale of the land to Defense ‘silly, but logical’. “On the one hand, it is silly that the Ministry of Defense has a price -entering and farming does not give farmers a chance,” says Vosseveld.
At the same time, according to the BBB member, the Ministry of Defense needs loud land to compensate the farmers in the neighborhood of the hair. “And if land comes for sale now, then of course you have to buy that. It’s just a business transaction.”