Agricultural issues, fundamental issues, the land

Alvincz, József

Keywords: farm ownership, farm regulations, land market, land prices, family farms

Since the change of political regime in Hungary, the issue of arable land has been seen in a different light. In the previous decades – according to the prevailing Marxist work value ideology – agricultural land, one of the main factors in agricultural production, was not assigned any value as it was not created through work. There was no real land market either. The ad hoc sale of the small plots left in private ownership cannot be considered, even remotely, an indication of the price of land. Due to the lack of clear agricultural policy in the preceding decades and therefore the missing land policy and farm regulation, the situation of land ownership and farm sizes in Hungary reflects the results of the indemnification programme and its distortions. The land ownership has solidified and is difficult to change. The advocacy groups – MAGOSZ, MOSZ and the Chamber of Agriculture – as well as the local communities could act as catalysts promoting the clearing up of land ownership issues, one form of which is land exchange.The legal institution of agricultural farm regime should be introduced. (A similar system exists in seven Member States as well as Norway and Switzerland.)In addition to prolonging the land purchase moratorium applicable to foreigners and domestic legal persons, funds should be requested from the EU for land ownership restructuring, or funds should be reassigned within the current aid envelope.EU-compatible measures would need to be introduced or revived in order to provide priority aid to family farms.

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