Aim of the paper: in order to create the new most appropriate model of rural development in Lithuania, it is necessary to analyse specific situation, created under the influence of the last century historical events and its long-term consequences. Lithuania, as well as other Baltic states, has created the agrarian sector under the very complicated economical, social, and cultural circumstances. Each Baltic state (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) had some specific features of rural development, which were formed during the last century.

This paper examines the preservation of farmland through purchasable development rights. In a comparison of the estimated costs and benefits associated with the development of open space from 1982 to 1992, we show that these programs may provide a net benefit to society. An econometric model is employed to address the question of what factors explain both the creation of these programs and the magnitude of farmland preservation.

The specificity and uniqueness of land as a land appraisal object are disclosed. Principles of land appraisal are considered, their interrelation and dependence on land use features are shown.

Розкрито специфіку і унікальність землі як обєкта оцінки. Розглянуті принципи оцінки земельних ділянок, показаний їх взаємозвязок і залежність від особливостей використання землі.

Land markets have received a considerable amount of attention in economic literature. Since the treatment of the topic covers various approaches, areas, and questions, it seems desirable to attempt an overview of the results. This paper devises a way in which to present a complete picture of the land market by drawing together the various contributions. The first step is to establish a method by which a market in its entirety can be defined. It is suggested that the application of Oliver Williamson's "Four levels of social analysis" is an appropriate approach to be used in this endeavour.

The dominant modes of vegetation variability over Zimbabwe are investigated using principal component analysis (PCA) on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) monthly imagery from 1982 to 2006. Spectral analysis is also used to determine the periodicities of the component loadings. NDVI PCA-1 corresponds to the major vegetation types of Zimbabwe, and we demonstrated that grasslands and dry savannah have the strongest relationship with mean annual precipitation.

This article examines economic efficiency (EE) of crop production of Russian corporate farms for 1993-1998. EE declined over the period, due to declines in both technical and allocative efficiency. Technical efficiency (TE) results indicate that output levels could have been maintained while reducing overall input use by an average of 29-31% in 1998, depending on the method used, while the allocative efficiency (AE) results show that costs could have been reduced about 30%.

This report was prepared for the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) in South Africa. In 2001 DLA set up the Communal Property Institutions (CPI) Task Team to review land reform legal entities. The purpose of the review and this report is to improve the situation and functioning of CPIs in order to move towards, rather than away from, achieving the objectives of land reform. To do this, the report covers:

• Methods of assessing and analysing cpi performance

• CPI assessment and analysis

• Offering explanations for causes of CPI problems

This report was prepared for the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) in South Africa. In 2001 DLA set up the Communal Property Institutions (CPI) Task Team to review land reform legal entities. The purpose of the review and this report is to improve the situation and functioning of CPIs in order to move towards, rather than away from, achieving the objectives of land reform. To do this, the report covers:

• Methods of assessing and analysing cpi performance

• CPI assessment and analysis

• Offering explanations for causes of CPI problems