Naslov
Developing agrarian structure through the disposal of state-owned agricultural land in Croatia

Autori
Svržnjak, Kristina ; Franić, Ramona

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Skup
132nd EAAE seminar "Is transition in European agriculture really over?"

Mjesto i datum
Skopje, Sjeverna Makedonija, 25.10.2012. - 27.10.2012

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
state-owned agricultural land ; state-owned land disposal ; agricultural land consolidation

Sažetak
During the pre-accession period, Croatia, as well as other countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) underwent the transition from planned to market economy, in order to create a new agricultural stricture based on private ownership and market oriented economy. With pre-existing problems, it also faces the consequences of historical heritage where large state and cooperative farms mainly consisted of privately owned land. Therefore, the land, which was once taken from its owners, had to be returned. Most countries of Central and Eastern Europe opted for selling the state-owned agricultural land and returning the cooperative agricultural land to its rightful owners, thus enabling farmers to expand their production capacity and strengthen their businesses. The papers analyzes the disposal of state-owned agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia in comparison with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that went through similar agrarian reforms, based on the data provided by the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture and experiences of the CEE countries (Swinnen, 1997, Giovarelli, Bledsoe, 2001). There are 890, 214 ha of state-owned agricultural land in Croatia so the disposal of state-owned agricultural land must start with direct consolidation of farms, that is, of increasing their current average size of 5.9 ha. Since Croatia's independence in 1991, all formerly socially-owned agricultural land has become state-owned. The disposal of state-owned agricultural land is regulated by the Law on Agricultural Land, which has been amended several times since 1991 because its implementation showed considerable faults and impediments which delayed the disposal of farmland. Since 2002 the process of disposing and privatizing state-owned agricultural land has been decentralized because it is implemented on the local level in accordance with Programs for the disposal of state-owned agricultural land, approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. According to the Programs, 60.8% of state-owned agricultural land is available for disposing or, more precisely, 540, 973.31 ha of land. Although the Programs plan for the majority of the land to be sold (42%), unresolved property and legal issues resulting from double land records, which are run separately and uncoordinatedly, prevent the sales. Until the geodetic survey is performed and until the land property and legal issues are resolved, which is a long-term and expensive process, the land set for sales is temporarily leased, just as it was the case in other countries of CEE. In the Check Republic 25% of the state-owned agricultural land was disposed that way, in Slovakia 15%, in Poland 19% and Eastern Germany 7%. Due to the above mentioned reasons, Croatia has not managed to accomplish the goals set by Programs and only 20.6% of the state-owned agricultural land is offered for disposal by public tenders (sales, lease, concession, return and other purposes) which means that 706, 480.30 ha is still available. If we assume that the mentioned area is leased at the average price of 568, 80 HRK based on the Regulations on the initial price (Official Gazette 40/2009), it is easy to calculate the financial loss of not disposing the agricultural land of 401.845, 994.64 HRK and unused financial means for the programs of consolidating agricultural farms. The reasons for new and fundamental changes of the Croatian Law on Agricultural Land emerged in 2008 because it had become obvious that the prescribed forms of disposing state-owned land were administratively long-term and complicated even though the local municipalities had the authority to dispose of the state-owned land. Moreover, data from cadastre, land registry and the situation in the field was still not integrated, which in turn disenabled the sales leaving the issue of unused agricultural land. It was therefore decided to establish a state Agency for Agricultural Land which took over the land disposal affairs from the local municipalities which had not done the Program of disposing the agricultural land. However, although the Agency has been established, it has no influence, and this is the case with other countries of the CEE, where “land funds” have been formally established, or the so called state land reserves for the purpose of land consolidation (Slovenia, Check Republic, Slovakia, Poland). The Law on Agricultural Land from 2008 clearly defines the preemptive right of sale and lease, directed primarily at family farm owners, employed at their own farms and legal entities registered for doing agricultural activities and registered in the Farm Registry. The data shows that from 2003 until 2008 the area of used agricultural land in Croatia increased by 29%, and average size of agricultural farms by 9.5% which was greatly influenced by legal measures of state-owned agricultural land disposal. Considering the fact that there is still 79.4% of state-owned agricultural land available for disposal, the future holds further positive effects of implementing analyzed consolidation measures for the purpose of changing agrarian structure.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Poljoprivreda (agronomija)

POVEZANOST RADA