This presentation was given at the Webinar "Land Consolidation Legislation: FAO Legal Guide and Its Application at the Country Level" on 18 June 2020. It explores the content of the new FAO Legal Guide on Land Consolidation, as well as the context that led to the development of this guide.
The Republic of Azerbaijan implemented during the late 1990s a land reform, which distributed the state owned agricultural land to the rural population but also led to excessive land fragmentation and small farm sizes. Agricultural and rural development is high on the political agenda in Azerbaijan and is seen as an important sector to development as part of an overall strategy of reducing dependency on income from oil production.
The Chinese government has pursued rural land consolidation under the Building New Rural Communities (BNRC) initiative. The consolidation projects aim to address the hollowing village problem, improve the living standards of rural dwellers, and promote urban-rural integration. Rural villages with small populations and poor infrastructure are merged into a centralized rural community, and their inhabitants are resettled. The newly vacated buildings are then converted to agriculture land, which allows cities to expand under the “no net loss” land-use policy.
Land consolidation is a highly effective land management instrument that allows for the improvement of the structure of agricultural holdings and farms in a country, which increases their economic and social efficiency and brings benefits both to right holders as well as to society in general. Since land consolidation gives mobility to land ownership and other land rights, it may also facilitate the allocation of new areas with specific purposes other than agriculture, such as for public infrastructure or nature protection and restoration.
Консолидация земель - это высокоэффективный инструмент управления земельными ресурсами, который позволяет улучшить структуру сельскохозяйственных угодий и ферм в стране, что повышает их экономическую и социальную эффективность и приносит пользу как правообладателям, так и обществу в целом. Поскольку консолидация земель дает мобильность землевладению и другим правам на землю, она также может способствовать выделению новых территорий с особыми целями, отличными от сельского хозяйства, например, для общественной инфраструктуры или охраны и восстановления природы.
Small plot size and land fragmentation are serious problems affecting agricultural productivity in many African countries. These problems are even serious in Ethiopia where population pressure is increasing and available farmlands per household are contracting. An entry point to tackle this problem can be voluntary land consolidation (VLC). Experiences elsewhere mainly in Eastern Europe and Asia demonstrate significant yield increase associated with increased efficiency and productivity through VLC.
The use of land consolidation on customary lands has been limited, though land fragmentation persists. Land fragmentation on customary lands has two main causes—the nature of the customary land tenure system, and the somewhat linked agricultural system. Since attempts to increase food productivity on customary lands have involved fertilisation and mechanisation on the small and scattered farmlands, these approaches have fallen short of increasing food productivity.
In many African countries and especially in the highlands of Ethiopia—the investigation site of this paper—agricultural land is highly fragmented. Small and scattered parcels impede a necessary increase in agricultural efficiency. Land consolidation is a proper tool to solve inefficiencies in agricultural production, as it enables consolidating plots based on the consent of landholders. Its major benefits are that individual farms get larger, more compact, contiguous parcels, resulting in lower cultivation efforts.
The use of land consolidation on customary lands has been limited, though land fragmentation persists. Land fragmentation on customary lands has two main causes—the nature of the customary land tenure system, and the somewhat linked agricultural system. Since attempts to increase food productivity on customary lands have involved fertilisation and mechanisation on the small and scattered farmlands, these approaches have fallen short of increasing food productivity.
Between Vietnam’s independence and its reunification in 1975, the country’s socialist land tenure system was underpinned by the principle of “land to the tiller”. During this period, government redistributed land to farmers that was previously owned by landlords. The government’s “egalitarian” approach to land access was central to the mass support that it needed during the Indochinese war.
Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world with an annual population growth rate of 1.3%. This growth is accompanied by an increase in sugar consumption, which is occurring at an annual rate of 4.3%. The huge demand for sugar has created a large gap between sugar production and demand. Indonesia became the world’s largest sugar importer in 2017–2018. Sugarcane farmers have an important role in sugar production. They are facing problems with declining sugarcane productivity and arable land decreasing.
Most countries in Western Europe have a long tradition for implementing land consolidation projects. In Central and Eastern Europe, land reforms from 1990 on in most countries resulted in farm structures characterized by excessive land fragmentation and small average farm sizes. Most CEE countries have introduced land consolidation instruments to address the structural problems. FAO has from 2000 on supported land consolidation in the region.