The concept of land consolidation is new in Latvia. Its main tasks are to eliminate land fragmentation and to facilitate farms of optimal size. One of the most important preconditions of land consolidation is forming of optimal size farmland plots in property and use, and land fragmentation, which has a major impact on both the operating conditions and other rural development processes. Land fragmentation affects not only land management, but it also increases transport costs.

The ongoing processes in agriculture, and the national economy in general, as well as continuous targeted reconstruction of the European Union Common Agricultural and Rural Development Policy, and other processes of globalisation and international integration, steadily and directly resound to Latvia, and create new objectives related to the use of land. The agreement on rural development adopted during the European Union Salzburg Conference has also established or determined new functions for the use of land.

The current support policy is increasing gaps in land management intensity among different regions of the country. The support policy for agricultural and rural development does not deal with solutions for land abandonment or environmental objectives, because the abandonment is becoming a hidden, environmental policy and rural development process, which is more expensive for society. Some alternative approaches and principles for designing a new agricultural land policy for Latvia could decrease the policy costs and make land management more targeted and acceptable for society.