Opening of the agricultural land market in Ukraine: advantages, disadvantages and ways to solve them

Abstract

The paper covers the topic of opening the land market in Ukraine, in particular, focuses on the advantages, disadvantages and suggests ways to solve them. The author studies the main regulatory legal acts in the field of agricultural land. It is found that the quality of agricultural production and the overall food security of the state depend on the level of functioning of the land market. The authors examine the arguments and counterarguments for lifting the ban on land sales. It is concluded that the current moratorium only exacerbated the existing problems of the land market. The author analyzes the number of contracts for the sale and purchase of agricultural land plots by region. The analysis shows that due to the hostilities in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions, this indicator is low compared to other regions. Both positive and negative aspects of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Terms of Agricultural Land Turnover" of July 01, 2021 are highlighted. In particular, the author focuses on problematic aspects, such as: lack of equal access to credit resources for all forms of business in the agricultural sector; lack of criminal liability of state registrars for registering land involved in fraudulent schemes; unregulated sale of agricultural land to foreigners and some others. It is found that only proper and clear legislative regulation will help to eliminate the existing gaps.