Student Bohdan Barantsov had a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel and studied a land reform in Germany
Bohdan Barantsov is a third-year student of Faculty of Land Management, and at the same time an active public figure outside the university. His last trip was to Germany, where he was able to study a land reform and agriculture management.
The transition to market relations in eastern states of Germany faced many similar problems to those which we had to solve in agriculture in Ukraine.
In 1989, 3 mln ha of land was owned by state in eastern states of Germany. In August 1990 Law "On privatization of agriculture" came into effect, under which land which was used by collective farms and cooperatives was given back to citizens on the basis of archival records in the Land Book.
In this case, each owner was given the opportunity to manage their land, including leasing or selling the land to someone who will use it for agricultural purposes; to found their own farm; to use land as the nominal capital of a new company or cooperative.
It was impossible to return expropriated land and it remained in state ownership. They have been leased out for 12 years with an option to be bought on favorable terms. Today a leaseholder may get up to 50% of leased land at a price not less than 65% of market value, and the remaining 50% of the land at a price of the market value. These terms helped to establish 25 thousand farms ranging in size from 1 to 1100 hectares or with an average area of 66 hectares (their land covers about 21% of the available agricultural land), 2,7 thousand of individual enterprises based on family relations, ranging in size from 2 to 2,500 hectares, or with an average area of 450 hectares (their share in land is 12%), 2,900 cooperatives and corporations ranging in size from 9 to 5,500 ha with an average area of 1,400 hectares (their share in land is 62%) as well as 2 million private households ranging from 0,1 to 20 hectares with an average area of 3 hectares for which agriculture is usually not major profitable, but rather a hobby in Eastern Germany. At this stage of land reform in Ukraine it would be appropriate to create a second official registry of land, namely the Land Book.
Private legal relations in terms of land will be registered in Land Book. That is this book will provide reliable information about real property rights on private land and about legal relations concerning the relevant land. Specifically Land Book will record who owns the land, the rights of others on this land, encumbrances and restrictions which are imposed on the land, the rank of rights.
It will make it easier for citizens to obtain information about the land in case they want to rent or buy land allotment. At the same time it will provide a free access to this document.
During a visit to Germany Bohdan also visited a number of ministries and met Chancellor Angela Merkel.
When students are back to studies, we will organize a round table where Bohdan and his friends will share their impressions of the trip and present experience of effective land reforms.
Nataliia Medynska
