In the Western region of Ukraine, melioration is both of economic and social importance. The area of reclaimed lands constitutes 2.2 million ha or 24 % of the total agricultural lands in the region. Thus, melioration is of great importance for social-economic development of agro-industrial complex of the territory. Under conditions of the land reform in Ukraine, reclaimed lands were subjected to sharing and privatization causing a negative impact on efficiency of its utilization and technical conditions of the reclaimed land infrastructure. The aim of the research is to analyze conditions and suggest practical recommendations as to rise of productivity of reclaimed lands, peculiarities of land organization on privatized reclaimed areas, consolidation of shared lands within the boundaries of acting drainage systems. Timeliness of the research is connected with the issues of improvement of agricultural utilization and protection of drained lands of the region. The authors used economic-statistical, monographic and logistic methods in the research. The example of Lviv region was used to analyse conditions and problems of reclaimed lands of western regions of Ukraine under conditions of land relations’ transformation. It is mentioned that only 70 % of drained areas feature satisfactory water-air regime of soil for cultivation of agricultural crops. Prospects of an increase of their utilization efficiency are connected with reconstruction of the systems consolidating common technological melioration complexes, support of both-side regulation of soil humidity.

The media frequently refers to the concept of abandoned land. The reasons for its occurrence are discussed and the ways to diminish the problem are being searched for. Various sources of information were used for the research. They enabled the authors to identify the concept of abandoned lands. In addition, the situation of abandoned lands was analysed and causes of occurrence of such lands in one cadastral area of mid-Lithuania municipality were defined. According to the set of data, concerning abandoned lands (AŽ_DRLT), the data, provided in the mentioned data set and the data obtained during field testing were compared. The survey of the terrain was conducted in the early autumn of 2013 and repeated in the late spring of 2014. In order to find out why the land was abandoned, the surveyor of cadastral area was additionally interviewed. On the basis of the latest data of 2014, 123 spaces of abandoned lands, which occupy 59.74 ha, were found in Sujainai cadastral area. Having analysed the set of abandoned land data, it was identified that boundaries of 95 abandoned plots corresponded to the situation in the area, whereas boundaries of 28 areas should be corrected. Moreover, the abandoned areas that had not been marked were found while the land abandonment in the terrain was obvious. Although the amount of abandoned land is decreasing in both the area analysed and throughout Lithuania, the situation is not favourable. Having conducted the research, it was found that the main reasons for land abandonment in Sujainai cadastral area were as follows: poor fertility in non-productive lands (up to 32 points) and reclamation; no potential land consumers, purchasers or tenants of land areas of high productivity or it is complicated and expensive to pursue agricultural activity there.

The average land productivity score is about 41.8 in the Republic of Lithuania. However, in separate regions it ranges from 30.5 to 55.1. The research object is agricultural utilities in rural municipalities of the Republic of Lithuania. The analysis of land use plan fragments in the selected areas shows that land is abandoned mostly in land areas where non-productive land or hilly relief prevails. Having improved conditions of land use, about 44 % of abandoned agricultural utilities can be transferred into intensive farming.