Towards Improved Farm Structures and Rural Land Market Functioning : Policy Options Based on Lessons from European Experience
Most transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe face enormous challenges in developing a viable land structure. Due to restitution processes and socially engaged policies of privatization, wide spread land fragmentation is present. The situ...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/955411523019539392/Towards-improved-farm-structures-and-rural-land-market-functioning-policy-options-based-on-lessons-from-European-experience http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29700 |
| Summary: | Most transition countries in Central and
Eastern Europe face enormous challenges in developing a
viable land structure. Due to restitution processes and
socially engaged policies of privatization, wide spread land
fragmentation is present. The situation in Armenia is
comparable with many other countries in the region.
Privatization was mainly done in the 1990s but continues
until now as state and public land still represent a
relatively large share of agricultural land. Figures of
Armenia over the last 20 years illustrate minimal change in
average farm and plot size. This outline is based on review
and analysis of available data and a visit to Armenia in
June 2017. It aims to contribute to selecting the policy
options and setting the preconditions in Armenia needed to
get a well-functioning rural land market to enlarge farms
and to reduce fragmentation. As shown in this report,
experience in the region is still limited which made it
necessary and relevant to refer to experience in Western
European countries. Options are not limited to land
consolidation but include improved management of state land,
land banking, agricultural lease regulation and some other
supporting measures. The analysis conducted for this report
draws on data collected from the Agricultural Census data of
2014 and data from the Real property cadastre. Qualitative
data are based on several reports, presentations and
interviews with experts and policy makers listed in the
annex. Although further analysis is needed, it is clear that
the current situation provides a serious risk for the
agricultural sector which jeopardises the impact of any
support to the sector. While Western European countries
could organically adapt and support the sector to changing
market conditions since the 1950s, the situation in Armenia
(and other countries in the region) requires a set of
measures which is unprecedented in its scale and intensity
to speed up this process. |
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