Medium-scale farms have become a major force in Malawi’s agricultural sector. Malawi’s most recent official agricultural survey indicates that these account for over a quarter of all land under cultivation in Malawi. This study explores the causes and multifaceted consequences of the rising importance of medium-scale farms in Malawi.
In Norway land consolidation is organized entirely within the judicial system. This paper describes how land consolidation courts work, and examines mediation activities in the courts. Questionnaires were used to get data on 727 cases in 1996, and in-depth interviews with 23 judges were used to get information on mediation behavior. The results indicate that mediation is a frequent activity.
Fragmented small farms in Japan and other high wge rice-based economies in monsoon Asia have become an obstacle to sustainable rural development. This problem has not yet been resolved under private land ownership.
Since 1991, Moldova has carried out a wide range of radical reforms affecting its social and economic system. The land reform, which was practically completed in 2000, created over 1 million landowners among the rural population. Many of them entrusted their land to managers of newly created corporate farms. Others used their privately owned land to establish independent family farms.
Adopted about one year after the 1989 Revolution, Land Law (Law 18/1991) represented the starting point of land reform in Romania. As a result of this law implementation, at the beginning of the year 2000 the private sector owned 84% of total agricultural land: 82% of arable land, 74% of land under vineyards, 67% of land under orchards and 87% of land under meadows and pastures.
The article examines productivity and efficiency of Polish individual farms, contributing to the policy debate on excessive fragmentation and the need for land consolidation. Data of a rural household survey conducted in the spring of 2000 show that Polish individual farms in the size range of up to 100 hectares have positive marginal productivity of land and increasing returns to scale.
Recent studies have focused on the 'silent' agricultural revolution that occurred in rural West German society during the postwar period.
Land consolidations in Slovakia are regarded as an instrument for solution of ownership fragmentation in accordance to rural development. In the introduction of this paper, we describe problems in Slovakia associated with the ownership fragmentation. Country, rural areas were significantly influenced by the period of collectivization.
Spatial modifications should be introduced in areas where members of the local community actively participate in consolidation projects. Social acceptance is the key prerequisite for successful land consolidation. How should the sequence of land consolidation measures be planned in a rural area whose inhabitants have not expressed their opinions about the project?
In the Western region of Ukraine, melioration is both of economic and social importance. The area of reclaimed lands constitutes 2.2 million ha or 24 % of the total agricultural lands in the region. Thus, melioration is of great importance for social-economic development of agro-industrial complex of the territory.
