For many centuries land relations in the territories of Latvia and Russia have been developed by different influences of different foreign forces. The comparison of orientation and dynamics of the land reform in countries with similar initial parameters allowed analyzing the impact of changes in property relations on activities of farms, their productivity, involved costs and the benefits. The main conclusion is that the land reforms in Latvia and in Russia were not the main objective of agricultural land use saving and development of agricultural enterprises.

The main reason of land fragmentation in Latvia was the restitution of ownership rights to former landowners or their heirs, as well as the land acquisition by other persons in the process of the land reform. As a result the ownership structure was obtained which is not competitive in the aspect of production efficiency. Different instruments as land consolidation, land reallotment and others can be applied for the reduction of land fragmentation. The reduction of land fragmentation should play an essential role in the use of the land corresponding to the spatial development plans which determines perspective land use. Therefore the improvement of the ownership structure should be one of the stages of land use planning.

The analysis of the declared agricultural land and ecological farming situated in the Krekenava regional park (RP), which is situated in the Middle Lithuania, is presented in the article. The Naujamiestis subdistrict was chosen for the comparison of the use of agricultural lands and ecological farming in the regional park. In 2011, the total agricultural land and crop area declared in the Krekenava Regional Park was 8184.19 ha, i.e. by 317.89 ha or 3.74 percent less than in 2009. 371 family farms were declared, i.e. by 53 farms less in comparison with 2009. In 2009, the declared area of agricultural lands in Naujamiestis subdistrict covered 9877.66 ha and it made up 63.32 percent of the total subdistrict’s area. 359 farmers introduced declarations. The average area of the declared farms was 27.51 ha. In 2011, the declared area of the agricultural lands was 9851.33 ha i.e. smaller than 26.33 ha or 0.27 percent less than in 2009. The number of declared farmers in 2011 was 329, i.e. by 30 farms or 9.12 percent less than in 2009. Ecological farming is relevant to protected areas. The article analyzes the Krekenava RP and Naujamiestis subdistrict’s farms applying ecological farming tools. The analysis of the 2009- 2011 period showed that the declared areas in Krekenava RP have decreased, and the area of farms applying organic measures has increased by 81.69 hectares (nearly 2.5 times). The number of farmers applying organic farming measures in Naujamiestis subdistrict has increased twice and 12 farms i.e., 3.63 per cent of the declared ones had organic farms in 2011, the analyzed area was increased by 581.55 hectares or 3 times.

The problem of abandoned agricultural land is relevant in Lithuania, particularly in the territories where poor soils are dominant. The aim of this research is to analyze the statistics of abandoned land in poor soil regions by different estimation methods. The abandoned land was registered for the purposes of the research. Areas might be determined by using statistical data and by applying the results of a distant research method. The initially obtained data showed large differences among the areas of abandoned land determined by different calculation methods, and this might cause a lot of problems, in particular when clarifying the validity of the land taxation. Therefore the initial data of the research concerning abandoned land should be essentially revised. The results of abandoned land accounting and evaluation (inventory) in each territory should be checked and confirmed by the committee of qualified specialists. The reasons of abandonment should be determined for each land plot, and further use of the plot should be determined. Plots of abandoned agricultural land should be estimated for each parcel of the private land and registered in the cadastre data as additional information for estimation of the land tax.

The latest land reform in Latvia has substantially altered the structure of use of farmland leading to a great number of very small and fragmented agricultural holdings, yet, in terms of occupied total area and UAA, medium size (10.0-50.0 ha) and slightly larger (more than 50.0 ha) land holdings dominate. In Latvia the number of agricultural holdings tends to decline. On the contrary, the average UAA per agricultural holding rose (by 66%), reaching 23.2 ha in 2010. One can conclude that positive structural changes take place in the agricultural industry – the number of small farms has declined and the number of and the area farmed by large marketoriented farms has risen, thus the difference between the sizes of land holdings that emerged during the land reform and the land areas farmed by agricultural holdings has increased.

Peculiarities of farming land usage in southern Lithuania are analyzed in the article. The analysis of archival data and cartographical material reflecting the structure of farming land in Marijampolė, Šakiai, Kazlų Rūda, Alytus, Lazdijai and Vilkaviškis municipalities was accomplished. Information was taken from yearbooks and archives of public institutions of the Republic of Lithuania and other sources as well. It was determined after analysis of collected information that usage and location of cultivated land greatly depend on the land’s productivity. The largest amount of undeclared farming land is in the districts where the land less favourable for farming is dominant. The analysis of the period of last 10 years has shown that the area of farming land decreased by 753 ha in Lazdijai district and by 194 ha in Vilkaviškis district, but increased by 5.5 ha in Alytus district on average per annum.

In Ukraine, degradation of land resources is a complex ecological problem, preventing sustainable development of land employment. Land protection from degradation requires development of measures in the process of land management at regional and local levels. Efficiency of the measures depends considerably on reliable information about quantitative and qualitative conditions of lands, due to the fact that it forces timeliness of the research. The aim of the research is to study problems of land degradation in terms of land management while developing measures of land resource protection. To reach this aim, the following tasks were set out: to analyse the drawbacks of informational support in terms of land management fulfilment at the current stage of land relations development; to describe prospective ways to implement the measures on land protection from degradation in Ukraine. Methodological basis of the research is includes the method of system analysis (performed while studying the process of land resource degradation) and cartographic method (employed while detecting the spread of degradation processes and its drawbacks in land employment). The research has determined that soil maps and plans of employment of lands do not provide reliable information about quantitative and quantitative conditions of land resources. The existing organisation of land use, first arable one, does not always correspond to soil-conserving requirements. It is proposed: to update plan-cartographic material based on space images and data of agrochemical classification of agricultural lands; to establish efficient organisational and economic mechanisms to implement ecological policy in the field of land management.

Land degradation is a topical issue not only in Latvia, but also in Europe. Even the real estate additional tax rate of 1.5% does not prevent agricultural land from overgrowing, and there is no other legal mechanism to control it. One of the mechanisms of prevention of land degradation process is reconstruction of drainage systems, change of worthless agricultural land (less than 25 points) to forest land or improvement and return of agricultural land (more than 25 points) to economic production. Although such actions require financial resources, there may be a variety of financial support programs, for example, the decrease of the real property tax rate (in case of afforestation).

The purpose of this article is to analyse the rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection prepared in the municipality of Elektrėnai during the period between the years of 2012 and 2016, and to determine their potential impact on the growth of built-up areas and the rational use of land. According to the survey data, it can be stated that drafting rates of rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection tend to grow especially in those municipalities that are close to Vilnius and which have a good geographical position as well as a special landscape and national cultural heritage values (Vilnius district, Trakai district and Elektrėnai district municipalities). Having carried out the agricultural land change analysis, it is noted that during the analysis period (2012 - 2016) in Elektrėnai municipality, similarly to the whole Vilnius county, land utilities structure is dominated by agricultural land, mostly arable land, but the significant trend of agricultural land reduction at the expense of the growth of built-up areas was noticed. During the analysed period the built-up areas in the municipality of Elektrėnai increased even by 6 times, and the area of agricultural land declined on average, by almost 2 percent every year. A detailed analysis of specific projects and information gathered during qualitative research suggest that the prepared rural development land use projects for farmstead site selection are not prepared for the improvement of the actual farming activity conditions in constructing farm and other buildings.

The article analyses the changes of agricultural production development and the demand of rural planning in the post-reform period. The main aim of the research is to identify the problems of land use and the formation of farms as the territorial-production structures in Lithuania as well as to analyse the possibilities of finding solutions to them. Tendencies of the decrease of the number of rural residents and farms were determined, the regulation of which is possible by improving working and living conditions in rural areas by means of public support measures. In order to form land holdings of rational farms, to coordinate the residential construction, farmlands and the local road network, to preserve efficient agricultural land, it is suggested preparing the documents of land management planning. The implementation of these documents is associated with the regulation of the land use provided for by legislation, formation of cultural landscape, as well as with the EU and public support for the development of production of viable farms and environmental protection. It is recommended to supplement the rules of the preparation of documents of land management planning with methodological requirements for the arrangement of land parcels and for their conversion into other agricultural areas.