The Companhia das Lezírias (Lezírias Company) or CL for short (the only two letters in the company logotype), is a state-run agriculture and forestry company located in the

Lezíria do Tejo The Comunidade Intermunicipal da Lezíria do Tejo (; English: ''Tagus Floodplain'') is an administrative division in Portugal. It was established as an ''Associação de Municípios'' in 1987, converted into a ''Comunidade Urbana'' in 2003, and co ...

subregion, and headquartered in

Samora Correia Samora is a unisex given name and a surname. People with the name include: Given name * Samora Fihlani (born 1985), South African rugby union player * Samora Goodson (born 1984), American football player * Samora Khulu (died 2008), South African ...

, Benavente municipality,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. It was founded in the 19th century by the

Portuguese Crown This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Through the nea ...

. The company is an ecological sanctuary and periurban farming area, near

Grande Lisboa Grande Lisboa () or Greater Lisbon is a former Portuguese NUTS III subregion integrated in the Lisboa Region. It was abolished at the January 2015 NUTS 3 revision. It is part of the historical Estremadura Province. It includes the capital and ...

subregion - the most populated subregion of Portugal. The company produces

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, cork, and

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

, as well as being a reputed

horse breeder Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in ...

. In addition to its farming, forestry, and animal production activities, the Companhia das Lezírias has organised top equestrian events.Federação Equestre Portuguesa
, International Equestrian Federation's Endurance European Championship 2007 at Companhia das Lezírias - prospect at the FEP - Federação Equestre Portuguesa (Portuguese Equestrian Federation) official website, retrieved August 2007

History

The Lezírias Company was founded in 1836 when the

sold properties located near the capital city, Lisbon. It comprised 48,000 hectares of land located between the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...

and Sado Rivers. This property was reduced to less than half by global crises such as the Great Depression and the

World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

, as well as local climatic, seismic catastrophes and political turmoil which led to extensive land transaction. Nevertheless, the company was an important infrastructure for Portuguese agriculture throughout history, its modernity and technological developments in animal and vegetable farming as in forestry were always noted in the country. After 138 years, the Lezírias Company was nationalized, hence returning to public ownership status. The enterprise's economic sustainability and the policy to prevent urbanization from spreading there are the main tasks of its current administrations.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Companhia das Lezirias Government-owned companies of Portugal Agriculture companies of Portugal Companies established in 1836 Horse farms in Portugal 1836 establishments in Portugal