Problems and solutions for abandonment of utilised agricultural areas in Latvia
2017
Arika, E., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics and Social Development | Mazure, G., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics and Social Development
Utilised agricultural area is one of the most important natural resources in Latvia, which provides population with food and promotes the operation of agricultural companies. Unfortunately, appropriate land management is a problem for the majority of agricultural land owners, thereby adversely affecting the efficiency of resource use and increasing possibilities for the resource depletion. Constantly new solutions are searched for in Latvia to avert inefficient use of utilised agricultural areas and reduction of land as resource. Therefore, the research aim is to identify problems for agricultural land abandonment and describe adopted solutions for reduction of the abandoned land areas in Latvia. The authors have concluded that the utilised agricultural areas decrease with every year in Latvia; thus, constituting the decline of 2.78 % within six years. Land areas primarily decrease due to the abandonment and change of land use purpose. The share of unmanaged utilised agricultural areas in the total amount of agricultural land ranges from 12.97 % to 15.23 % between 2011 and 2016 reaching the peak in 2015. The major reasons for land abandonment include inefficient land management due to its low quality (soil fertility) as well as land owners lack the financial resources, time and willingness to manage the land. To avoid land degradation and decline of land resources, an additional immovable property tax rate in the amount of 1.5 % to agricultural land which is not being farmed is imposed from 2010 and from 2016 fines are applied to those landowners who leave land abandoned. The research is mainly based on the monographic descriptive method as well as the methods of data analysis and synthesis and a graphical method.
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