Acquisition Of Agricultural Land Research Articles

Riparian woody plant communities in the Romanian Carpathians: Species diversity and community structure of Salix and Hippophaë communities.

Riparian woody plant communities, including shrubs and trees, are essential for maintaining biodiversity, protecting against floods, reducing erosion, and transporting nutrients. However, these habitats are greatly threatened by human activities, particularly agricultural land acquisition, and the introduction of invasive species. This study examined species diversity and interspecific association in riparian woody plant communities along rivers in the Romanian Carpathians. The study focused on communities of Salix purpurea, S. alba, and Hippophaë rhamnoides in mountain regions, with varying sampling efforts at different sites for each species. A total of 174 plant species were found, predominantly herbaceous (77.9%), followed by trees (11.6%) and shrubs (10.5%). While S. alba and S. purpurea communities show high species richness and abundance, S. alba has slightly higher diversity (H' ≈ 2.23, SD = 0.28) than S. purpurea (H' ≈ 1.69, SD = 0.42). Contrarily, significant differences exist between H. rhamnoides and S. alba communities in species richness (p = .007) and Shannon diversity (p = .004). PCA analysis elaborated on distinct distribution patterns of plant associations within habitats S. purpurea community, H. rhamnoides community, and S. alba community. Four invasive species (Oenothera biennis L. and Oxalis stricta L. in S. alba communities, Reynoutria sachalinensis Nakai in both S. purpurea and H. rhamnoides communities, and Erigeron canadensis L. in H. rhamnoides communities) were identified, as requiring conservation efforts. Hemicryptophytes dominate species richness, while microphanerophytes and megaphanerophytes significantly contribute to plant abundance. H. rhamnoides formed Hippophaë rhamnoides dunes (2160) Natura 2000 habitat, while S. alba created galleries within the 92A0 Salix alba and Populus alba habitat. In conclusion, the findings from this study highlight the importance of preserving riparian habitats because their value goes beyond local or regional considerations and extends to the global scale due to their unique characteristics.

Living with coal in India: A temporal study of livelihood changes

This article asks what it is like for the rural poor to live with coal over time as mines expand and agriculture and forest-dependent ways of living inevitably become more restricted. Research on the expansion of open pit coal mining in India shows a widespread inability to appropriately compensate the rural poor for lost land and access to common property resources. Yet it is simultaneously clear that the growth of coal extraction over time ensures increased community dependence on mainly informal, coal-based livelihoods. What then happens over the long-term for people who live in and around the coalfields? Drawing on evidence from 2011 to 2022, this article explores longer term changes for mine-affected people next to major coal mines in Telangana state, India. Specifically, it examines a) the acquisition of forest and agricultural lands for the expanding mines, b) the operating mines and their environmental implications, but also improved job opportunities, and c) mine closure as an opportunity to rehabilitate the landscape and return the land for alternative community uses post mining. The results add to the understanding of the long-term changes that large-scale mining brings to rural communities, and the challenges to a just transition once coal mining inevitably comes to an end.

Agriculture land use transformation: A threat to sustainable food production systems, rural food security, and farmer well-being?

The acquisition of agricultural land is a crucial aspect of survival for numerous rural communities, serving as a fundamental tool for combating poverty and food insecurity and promoting equitable sustainable economic progress. The expropriation of land offers a promising prospect for remedying past inequities and promoting both economic progress and food sufficiency. Limited research has examined the association between land expropriation and food security, livelihood shocks, and the well-being of rural households worldwide. Therefore, this research explores the implications of land expropriation on food security, livelihood shocks, and well-being of land lost rural communities. The data were collected from 384 farmers selected through stratified sampling techniques using face-to-face surveys in rural China. The data were analyzed using descriptive and logit regression models. The descriptive findings showed that land expropriation has detrimental effects on the livelihood, food security, and well-being of the farmers. Furthermore, these impacts are more harmful among land-expropriated households with a lower educational level, a large family size, and women farmers in less developed rural communities. The econometric results evinced that gender, age, education level, marital status, family size, and negative changes in income all significantly affect the impact of land expropriation on the food security of farmers. Similarly, the findings revealed that farmers with lower education levels were more likely to be affected by land loss as compared to farmers with medium and high education levels. Farmers with complete land loss were 1.70 times more likely to suffer livelihood shocks than those with partial land loss. The results also evinced that the well-being of all farmers was not affected equally, and some farmers' well-being was affected more than others due to various socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, this study suggests the implementation of public policies that provide support to farmers who have been marginalized due to land acquisition.

Croatian land acquisition rules after the expiry of the EU moratorium

The aim of this article is to present the harmonization of the Republic of Croatia in connection with its land acquisition rules. This paper presents the gradual adjustment of Croatian land acquisition rules to EU laws and the final results of the process upon the expiry of the EU moratorium on the acquisition of agricultural land. The paper aims to analyse how the accession to the EU has impacted the development of Croatian land acquisition rules, the development of legal transactions of real property, and the entire economic development of the country.

Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for Ukraine and other Countries

The aim of the research was to assess the legal framework for the acquisition of agricultural land by domestic and foreign legal entities, using the rules and regulations on the agricultural land market in Ukraine as an example of a system with ill-founded restrictions in this area. To accomplish this task, the authors resort to a set of scientific methods, including comparative review, systematic review and standard techniques of text analysis. The main result of the research was that it is imperative for Ukraine, taking into account that European integration is a key and unalterable priority of its foreign policy, to grant a general permission for foreign natural and legal persons to acquire agricultural land, as well as to introduce flexible approaches to setting acquisition limits. It is concluded that, the attention of policy makers should also focus on the need to deploy legal and institutional mechanisms that can respond to the challenges and risks associated with a significant degree of freedom of movement of agricultural land. This could include establishing in contracts for the alienation of agricultural land the obligations of buyers in relation to its rational use.

The Impact of Large-scale Agricultural Investments in Low-income Economies

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in developing countries. The accompanying socio-economic implications have been areas of debate among politicians, policymakers and development agents. This paper argues that the traditional way of simulating the impacts of these investments in developing countries is misleading as the approach implies that the new investments are identical to the semi-subsistence way of farming that dominates agricultural practices in the host countries. In this study, we incorporate the peculiarity of large-scale agro-investments into an existing database for economy-wide models, i.e., social accounting matrix (SAM), and capture welfare and distributional outcomes properly. SAM-based multiplier models applied to Ethiopian data justify the need to account for the peculiarity of the investments in terms of production technology and their geographic distribution.

Features of Acquisition of Agricultural Land Plots for Private Ownership in the Russian Federation

The article considers topical aspects of the acquisition of the right of private property in the Russian Federation for land plots of agricultural purpose under the mechanism of state support for agricultural producers. The importance of the topic is due to the agricultural land value, that plays a special strategic role in the state as the main means of food production, as well as being one of the guarantees of the development of the agricultural sector in the country. The number of privately owned agricultural plots is increasing every year. This is facilitated by the establishment in 2015 of an accessible and clear procedure for the acquisition of public land in private ownership. At present, there are sufficient cases of private ownership of land, taking into account the specific development of land rights in the post-Soviet period. In order to acquire agricultural land, the Act also provides for a preferential purchase price, which only facilitates the involvement in civil circulation of agricultural land. For all that, despite the positive dynamics of the conversion of land plots to private ownership, the volume of state and municipal ownership of land still significantly exceeds private ownership. It has been established that the State provides for various cases of acquisition of agricultural land for private ownership, subject to compliance with certain requirements of the current legislation. In practice, the authorized bodies and applicants must strictly comply with the requirements of the law, otherwise in the future in a judicial dispute their actions (omission) can be defined as abuse of the right, violation of freedom of competition and equal access to land, and the concluded contract may be invalidated.

BFASTm-L2, an unsupervised LULCC detection based on seasonal change detection – An application to large-scale land acquisitions in Senegal

In the context of Global Change Research, detection, monitoring and characterization of land use/land cover (LULC) changes are of prime importance. The increasing availability of dense satellite image time series (SITS) has led to a shift in the change detection paradigm, with algorithms able to exploit the full temporal information laid down in SITS. So far, most of these algorithms have focused on the detection of abrupt and gradual changes, and thus developed breakpoint detection based on significant deviations from the mean. However, LULC changes may manifest themselves in other patterns, particularly changes in seasonality (amplitude, number and length of the growing seasons) that are harder to detect. In this paper, we propose a simple method to automatically select the breakpoint linked to the biggest seasonal change in long and dense SITS with multiple breakpoints. This approach - BFASTm-L2 - relies on linking a high-speed algorithm (BFAST monitor) with a time series similarity metric (Euclidian distance L2) sensitive to seasonal changes. The capacity of BFASTm-L2 to identify the date of change in different situations was tested on two data sets, and compared to the performances of three other algorithms (BFAST monitor, BFAST lite, and Edyn). The data sets are 1. a published benchmark data set composed of 25 200 simulated SITS with different change types and change magnitudes, and 2. the 2000–2020 MODIS NDVI SITS over a 200x200 pixels area in Senegal including different study sites which have undergone recent LULC changes due to agricultural large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) (as reported in the ground field database used in this study). The results show that BFASTm-L2 is efficient in accurately detecting in time most of the changes, and, in contrast with BFAST Lite and BFASTmonitor, to spatially highlight LSLAs-induced changes without the need of any prior knowledge. The automatic proposed approach, faster than BFAST Lite and Edyn, and with very few tuneable parameters, may thus be easily implemented in unsupervised pipelines to map and analyse generic LULC changes at regional scale.

Responsible governance of land tenure in the context of agricultural investment from theory to Practice: Lessons from Ethiopia

Following the 2007 and 2008 global food crisis, emphasis has been placed on large-scale acquisition and transfer of land for agricultural investment to foreign and domestic investors from the global south as a strategy to address food shortages. Worldwide promotion for large scale agricultural investment has again resulted in land grabbing in the global south with potential threats to the land rights and livelihoods of smallholder farmers or local communities. This situation has opened a room for discussion on how to improve governance or administration of agricultural investment land so that the land rights and livelihoods of smallholder farmers or local communities and other vulnerable groups are protected. As a result, the idea of responsible governance of land gained significant attention and various guidelines and frameworks have also developed and endorsed to promote responsible governance of agricultural investment land at global level. As a result, the purpose of this study is to analyze and understand the attention paid to promote responsible governance of land in the context of agricultural investment in Ethiopia. This study has employed a mixed research approach by using both quantitative and qualitative data collected from three case study regional states in Ethiopia. It primarily discusses the practice of land acquisition and transfer for agricultural investment purposes from the perspective of responsible governance of land. The findings of this study show that agricultural investment practices in Ethiopia significantly deviate from the principles of responsible governance of land. The conventional state controlled land acquisition and transfer of agricultural investment lands is more prevalent practice, with little emphasis to local community interests and environmental demands. Finally, this study has advised introduce and promote responsible governance of land as a way out to safeguard local communities’ interests and environmental concerns in the context of agricultural investment in Ethiopia.

Towards solar extractivism? A political ecology understanding of the solar energy and agriculture boom in rural China

Contemporary global climate change imperative has stimulated innovative technological systems to combine renewable energy production and other socioeconomic functions, which offer promising solutions to materialize both climate change mitigation and developmental targets. Agrivoltaics—an array of colocation models of solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure and agriculture—are becoming increasingly popular across the world and are widely considered a laudable green development model. Since circa 2013, agrivoltaics have started to diffuse across China, with promises of multiple socioeconomic and ecological benefits. Different from existent studies that mostly took apolitical innovation diffusion frameworks, this article draws on an in-depth case study and multiple secondary sources including information on 421 agrivoltaic projects to approach the proliferation of agrivoltaics in China through a political ecology lens. It finds that the diffusion of agrivoltaics in China has been driven neither by technological superiority nor by market-business viability but by a salient logic of solar extractivism in the name of green development. The solar extractivism is featured by: large-scale (agricultural) land acquisition, prioritization of solar electricity production, domination of renewable industries, deep engagement from local state, discourses of green transition and inclusive development, exclusionary enforcement techniques, and neglect of local socioecological systems. The stark contrast between discourses and realities reveals that the deployment of agrivoltaics embodies solar extractivism and the implicated “green agenda” served rather as a legitimation strategy for resource extraction. The solar extractivism perspective cautions against the fetishism of renewables and relevant green infrastructures in popular green development discourses and calls for critical examination of renewable integrative technical models through social justice lenses.

Transnational agricultural land acquisitions threaten biodiversity in the Global South

Agricultural large-scale land acquisitions have been linked with enhanced deforestation and land use change. Yet the extent to which transnational agricultural large-scale land acquisitions (TALSLAs) contribute to—or merely correlate with—deforestation, and the expected biodiversity impacts of the intended land use changes across ecosystems, remains unclear. We examine 178 georeferenced TALSLA locations in 40 countries to address this gap. While forest cover within TALSLAs decreased by 17% between 2000 and 2018 and became more fragmented, the spatio-temporal patterns of deforestation varied substantially across regions. While deforestation rates within initially forested TALSLAs were 1.5 (Asia) to 2 times (Africa) higher than immediately surrounding areas, we detected no such difference in Europe and Latin America. Our findings suggest that, whereas TALSLAs may have accelerated forest loss in Asia, a different mechanism might emerge in Africa where TALSLAs target areas already experiencing elevated deforestation. Regarding biodiversity (here focused on vertebrate species), we find that nearly all (91%) studied deals will likely experience substantial losses in relative species richness (−14.1% on average within each deal)—with mixed outcomes for relative abundance—due to the intended land use transitions. We also find that 39% of TALSLAs fall at least partially within biodiversity hotspots, placing these areas at heightened risk of biodiversity loss. Taken together, these findings suggest distinct regional differences in the nature of the association between TALSLAs and forest loss and provide new evidence of TALSLAs as an emerging threat to biodiversity in the Global South.

Acquisition of Agricultural Land in the Czech Republic

The article focuses on the acquisition of agricultural land in the Czech Republic. It aims to describe the topic in the context of both historical and property law. The article introduces historical context of property ownership relations and their composition. Agricultural land was nationalized by the State in the past. Therefore, after the Velvet Revolution, it was necessary to restate a significant part of state-owned property back to its original owners. Privatization and related matters form a significant part of the present analysis because it still affects the transfer of agricultural land from the State to private individuals. Historically, transfers of agricultural land have also been restricted on the basis of nationality. However, after the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union, this restriction has gradually been lifted. Pre-emption also remains an important issue. At present, however, there is no pre-emption right in general. It affects only certain types of agricultural land, where the pre-emption right is established in favor of the State. The next part of the article deals with actual transfers of agricultural land. This part introduces the basic requirements and elements of transfers, with an emphasis on transfers of state-owned agricultural land. On behalf of the Czech Republic, agricultural land is administered by the State Land Office, which is responsible for the disposal and alienation of land. First, the article focuses on privileged transfers the land in question is transferred only to a certain circle of subjects. In the succeeding section, methods of land transfers to non-privileged entities are described.

The Italian Legal Framework of Agricultural Land Succession and Acquisition by Legal Persons

The work outlines the Italian legal framework of agricultural land succession and of land acquisition by legal persons. The issue of the inter-generational turnover in agriculture is a fundamental issue of the political agenda of the European Union and is particularly relevant in Italy, where farms are predominantly family-owned. For this reason, intra-family succession is the preferred mechanism to transfer farm management to future generations, and it is carried out mainly through the so-called Family Pact (art. 768-bis of the Civil code) before the death of the farmer. Considering this type of transfer between generations, it is necessary to distinguish three different scenarios (that in which the agricultural holding is currently managed as a sole proprietorship farm business by one of the parents; that in which management of the agricultural holding has already been transferred to the children, but land and buildings remain the property of the parents; and that in which the holding is currently managed as an agricultural company in which the parents retain a majority interest).The single compendium, a specific legal institution aimed at preventing fragmentation of rural land, is also analyzed, as well as the consequences of the death of its owner. Succession in agricultural land and/or holdings and in agricultural contracts is also considered. With regard to succession of agricultural land and/or holdings, in case of death of the owner of agricultural land conducted or cultivated directly by him or by his family members, art. 49 of Law no. 203/1982 provides for the coercive establishment of an agricultural lease relationship, as the heir who is also a professional agricultural entrepreneur or a direct farmer becomes tenant by law (ex lege) of the land owned by the hereditary community for a period of 15 years, which corresponds to the minimum duration of leases of agricultural land established/set by art. 1 of Law no. 203/1982. At the end of said period, art. 4 of Law no. 97/1994 states that the heirs who are considered leaseholders of the portions of rural land included in the other co-heirs’ quotas, pursuant to art. 49 of Law no. 203/1982, have the right to purchase, on expiration of the coercive lease of land established by law, ownership of said portions (at the average agricultural value of the land) together with stocks, appurtenances, and annexed sheds. The last part of the work explores the rules of acquisition of land/holding by domestic and foreign legal persons. There are no limitations in Italian law on the acquisition of agricultural companies and/or agricultural holdings by foreign persons, both individuals and companies. Foreign investments or ownerships of farm property are neither supervised nor forbidden. As a result, a foreign investment is not subject to any specific government approval or consent from a public authority before the acquisition of any shares in a domestic agricultural company. However, the acquisition of a farm property may be subject to general rules related to ownership acquisition, and planning and environmental rules applicable to any other property.

State and Perspectives of Agricultural Land Acquisitions

Despite being marginal in both general and scientific public, land acquisitions have brought agricultural land in the unprecedented focus of interest. The causes of these changes are the consequence of, inter alia, the growing world population, which undeniably leads to the increased need for agricultural products. Therefore, in this article the most relevant cause of agricultural land acquisitions is considered – growing food demand. The history suggests that the acquisitions of agricultural lands are not a new phenomenon, but rather a new wave of déjà vu. However, what differentiates this wave of acquisitions from previous ones are, inter alia, its causes. The latest wave of agricultural land acquisitions, according to the general understanding, started with the global financial crisis. In these circumstances, the growing demand for land acquisition began, which led developing countries to realize that the purchase of agricultural land, despite its potentially negative effects, could serve as a catalyst for economic development. We drew the conclusion that more than a third of all the cross-border land acquisitions were caused by the growing food demand. The results of the research show that the growth of land acquisitions follows the growth of world population, implying that the demand for agricultural land will not be stagnant for at least three more decades. In other words, land acquisitions undeniably are in continuo. This implies the need that foreign direct investment policies in agriculture, are defined in a way which would maximise the benefits and minimise any potential drawbacks.

Political Domination and Economic Dispossession of Farmers: The Case of Land Acquisition for Special Economic Zones in India

Abstract Involuntary acquisition of agricultural land for setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in India benefited the elite at the expense of small farmers who were and are the dominant voting group. Consequently, such policies were met with fierce political resistance by farmer organizations across the country. However, these movements have a mixed record against land acquisition attempts by the state and large corporations. This paper presents a simple model of the political conflict between the elite and small farmers over land acquisition to show how the elite may mobilize resources to ensure that their economic interests are protected even in democracies where they are in electoral minorities. We test the predictions of our model using a new data set compiled on SEZ projects that failed to acquire land because of farmer agitations. We show that factors like inequality in land ownership (class) and hierarchies of caste hinder the ability of small and marginal farmers to successfully organize collective action against land acquisition. Further, the division of votes along caste and ethnic lines also dilutes the potential for successful farmer agitations against land acquisition. Finally, we find that historically marginalized communities also resist land acquisition even when they face greater caste-based discrimination in the traditional village economy.

Potential Conflict of Agricultural Land Acquisition

This study aims to provide an overview of the social conditions of the farming community during the land acquisition period, including the process, form and impact of the conflicts that occurred in the farming community in the case of agricultural land acquisition in Pangkep district. The unit of analysis of this research is the farming community. The research method used is descriptive qualitative research based on case study research, meanwhile the land tenure gap in Biraeng Sub-district which is one of the areas included in the railroad development plan in Pangkep regency is almost similar to the situation, which allows conflict to occur, supported by several factors such as differences in agricultural land productivity, as well as commercialization and application of technology that directly affect the heterogeneity of existing roles in agricultural activities and of course the ongoing agricultural land acquisition policy process also has the potential to cause conflict in the community because it is in direct contact with the economic aspects of the community.

GOVERNMENT AGRICULTURAL LAND ACQUISITION AND RURAL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS’ LIVELIHOOD IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

The Nigeria Land Use Act of 1978 placed statutory ownership of land into the State governors’ hands for public interest, and since then, the objectives of this act are yet to be met after 43 years of its enactment. Rural farming households in South West Nigeria has over the years experienced a forceful dispossession of their parcel of land by the State government and the conflicts arising from this take-over have remained largely unresolved both by lawful and peaceful means. The study examined the guiding principles of government agricultural land acquisition and rural farming households’ livelihood in South West Nigeria. The study used primary data sourced from 480 displaced rural farming households whose land has being acquired by government. The respondents were selected using two-stage sampling techniques. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Likert five points scale was used to measures attitudes. The results revealed that the displacement of rural farming households pushed many of the farmers to engaged in other jobs rather than relying only on farming activities. Likewise, there was a notable difference between the income earned by the farmers before and after forceful dispossession. The Likert five points scale revealed that the comprehensive approach to the acquisition and allocation of land and a robust and inclusive engagement strategy with all stakeholders, including affected communities and vulnerable groups was not effective in South West, Nigeria. This was reinforced by the finding that majority (75%) of the respondents reported a substantial knowledge gap and lack of awareness about policy frameworks and procedures associated with government agricultural land acquisition. The study recommended that State government should embrace comprehensive approach to the acquisition and allocation of land as stipulated by Committee on World Food Security-Responsible Agricultural Investment (CFS-RAI) and payment of fair compensation to the affected families whose land has been acquired by government.

Land Concentration and Land Grabbing Processes—Evidence from Slovakia

In Slovakia, the large-scale acquisition of agricultural land in combination with land concentration represents a legitimate threat that can lead to land grabbing. Based on the research, two interrelated areas of protection need to be effectively regulated to limit land grabbing: the protection of access to land and the protection of agricultural land. Due to the absence of relevant data analysis regarding this issue, the main aim of the study was to analyse the emergence of land concentration in Slovakia based on historical and cultural factors and to evaluate the current legislative and institutional framework of both aspects of land protection with a possible impact on the successively graduating threat of land grabbing. In particular, analytical methods were used, presenting the data from secondary literature sources, a questionnaire survey, and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Slovakia. The research shows that although the state has adopted the necessary legal framework for the protection of property rights to agricultural land, it is not possible to enforce it, as the institutional framework for its implementation is absent. It is also the state’s malfunctioning land protection regulatory mechanism and the absence of indirect action instruments that may be key indicators leading to the processes of industrial agriculture. Therefore, the adoption of legislation limiting agricultural land acquisition is important, but the processes of land grabbing presume the state’s complex provision of a regulatory mechanism and adoption of strategic measures aimed at sustainable land quality and food security.

LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF PERMITTING PROCEDURE FOR ALIENATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND PLOTS

ANNOTATION: Introduction. The article is devoted to the issues of legal provision of land to the most efficient owners in Ukraine during the new stage of land relations reform. According to the theory of the social function of ownership, private ownership of land is characterized as social law. The social function of property is based on a combination of individual and social interests, and the harmonization of the latter should be seen as the goal of any agrarian reform. Therefore, various restrictions on the scope of powers of the landowner are allowed. The possibility of public-law restriction of the right of free disposal of land enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine is associated with the danger that someday due to excessive restrictions the right of private ownership of land may become exhausted, which, in turn, may lead to suppression of free initiative land turnover. Establishing the possibility of legislative restriction of the right of private ownership of land, the Constitution of Ukraine imposes on the state the obligation to fairly regulate the process of interference in the relations of private ownership of land. Based on the above, the study of the balance of private and public interests in the opening of the market of agricultural land has significant scientific relevance. Summary of the main research results. For analysis, the concepts of "public necessity", "common good", "public interest" are used. The concept of the permitting procedure for the alienation of agricultural land is structured. As a model, the experience of Germany is cited, which highlights the provision that land use should simultaneously serve the common good. The alienation of agricultural land is under administrative control. The conclusion of an agreement and a contract relating to this alienation, which creates the relevant binding rights, requires the permission of the state. Permits are issued by executive bodies authorized by the state. The law introduces the preemptive right to purchase agricultural land by those who live and work on the land. This institution of preferential acquisition of agricultural land contributes to the consolidation of agricultural enterprises. Conclusions. It is noted about the possibility of applying in Ukraine such an institution of land law as the permitting procedure for the alienation of agricultural land. This will maintain the balance of private and public interests in the land market, and their harmonization should be seen as the goal of any agrarian reform.

Impacts of Agricultural Land Acquisition for Urbanization on Agricultural Activities of Affected Households: A Case Study in Huong Thuy Town, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam

Agricultural land acquisition for urbanization (ALAFU) has strongly impacted agriculture in Vietnam during the last decades. Given the mixed data obtained from a survey (with 50 households who lost 50% of their farmland area), in-depth interviews, a group-focused discussion and observation, this study shows the different impacts of ALAFU on each agricultural activity of affected household by comparing before and after ALAFU. Rice cultivation and animal breeding have sharply declined, but potted flower plantation (PFP) has quickly grown and is the main income of 34% of surveyed households. Rice cultivation has declined not only as a result of agricultural land acquisition, which has resulted in the loss of rice land, but also as a result of urbanization, which has resulted in rice land abandonment. Conversely, PFP is growing due to advantages associated with urbanization, such as a good consumer market and upgraded infrastructure. However, whether they are declining or increasing, all agricultural activities have to face challenges related to the shortcomings in agricultural land allocation and agricultural development plans. This study suggests that if ALAFU projects are continued, the government should evaluate agricultural development and forecast farmland abandonment after ALAFU. Simultaneously, they should put more effort into maintaining agriculture in the form of peri-urban or urban agriculture, which is significant for sustainable development in affected communities.