Methodology for Assessing the Size and Liquidation of the Outer Patchwork of Land

Abstract

A patchwork of land ownership is one of the factors that exert a negative influence on both the organization and the level of agricultural production. Excessive land fragmentation decreases the intensity of agricultural practices and increases production costs, thus leading to a continuous reduction in income. In many areas of Poland, over the years, fields have been divided into smaller and smaller parcels, which, along with the mass migration of people to towns and abroad, resulted in a faulty land ownership structure. Nowadays, it is recommended that measures be taken to eliminate both internal and external patchworks of farmland. Two such agricultural land management measures are land consolidation and land exchange. Rural areas in Poland require profound structural changes related to agricultural production, the size of agricultural holdings, the distribution of farmland in an agricultural holding, as well as demographic, spatial and institutional structure. Land consolidation and land exchange not only result in improved living and working conditions for farmers, but also contribute to enhancing the environmental and cultural assets of a village. The study allowed conducted using checkerboard matrix tables which allow one to determine the share of farmland owned by local and out-of-village non-residents. Research based on data from the estate cadastre. The research used information on the number of land owners, the number of parcels of land, the area of these parcels. The study computed the distance between 34 villages located in Slawno municipality, Opoczno County, Lodz voivodeship. An approach like this allows one to establish a program of exchange of land between these two groups of owners and to eliminate the problematic patchwork of land ownership through land exchange and consolidation.