New Trends and Drivers for Agricultural Land Use in Germany

Abstract

Agricultural land use in Germany is faced with new drivers and conflicts. There has been a continuous downward trend in agricultural land use since reunification, and agriculture seems to be increasingly squeezed by various land use demands. Whereas land prices and land rents have stayed rather stable during the 90ies and at the beginning of the new millennium, they have started to go up considerably during the last ten years. At the same time the agricultural sector is faced with deteriorating environmental indicators and a changing land use structure and concentration. International agricultural prices have become a key determinant for land prices in Germany contributing to increasing land prices. Equally, new demands for nature conservation and natural resource protection under the Common Agricultural Policy have contributed to make agricultural land scarcer, and bioenergy production under the Renewable Energy Act has considerably affected land demand and prices in various regions. In East Germany, some land market specialties relate to the farm structure and the land privatization process after reunification. In view of these developments, there is a new policy debate on agricultural land market interventions.