Formation of the Land Market as a Prerequisite for Ensuring Food Security of a Country

Abstract

The article outlines theoretical approaches to the study of the development of land relations and provides the substantiation of the methodological toolkit for the study. A set of legal and economic relations that arise in the course of turnover of land is investigated, namely, transactions of purchase and sale, inheritance, exchange, gift, pledge, lease and emphyteusis. The structure of land transactions and changes in their number over time by designated purpose are analyzed. The use of the Ward’s and k-means methods made it possible to divide regions of Ukraine into three cluster groups by level of development of land governance as well as to identify the existing problems. The European practice of the development of land relations and the formation of the agricultural land market is considered. The practice of the EU Member States has proved that a developed and well-institutionalized land market is a necessary prerequisite for ensuring food security of a country and developing its export potential. The analytical review and findings of the study of the features characterizing the evolution of land relations in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania made it possible to identify the main elements of the formation of a full-fledged agricultural land market, namely: cadastre, specialized land institutions, market-based land valuation mechanism and state regulation. It is established that effective use of land resources in Ukraine is possible only provided that the land reform is completed and a full-fledged agricultural land market is formed. Only under these conditions the use of the available agricultural land can be intensified, and the food and economic security of the state can be ensured.

Keywords

• land governance
• land market
• food security
• cluster analysis
• european experience
• efficiency