Advantages and risks of opening the land market in Ukraine

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the abolishment of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land and the risks arising from the land market opening in Ukraine. The paper aims to identify the effectiveness of land mortgages for the agricultural sector of the economy and determine the mechanisms of state policy aimed at legal groundwork to guarantee rights of landowners. The comparative analysis of the land market development in the Central European states contributed to identifying system-based state management of land market formation processes, which had a positive effect on the land reform outcomes in these states. The analysis results confirmed the timeliness of the land market opening in Ukraine, which is related to the chosen economic and political course. The investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex is due to high productivity of lands and is supported with the possibility of mortgaging agricultural land. Neutralization of factors hindering the foreign investment attracted to agricultural business will contribute to the attraction of efficient technologies and highly productive use of the agricultural land in Ukraine. Some measures aimed at the land relations transformation in Central Europe do not consider the peculiarities of the Ukrainian agricultural sector. In particular, it is not reasonable to sell agricultural land to foreigners. Assessment of certain provisions of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Conditions of Agricultural Land Transactions’ No. 552-IX shows the inevitability of abuse by foreign-owned banking institutions of the possibility to alienate the lands pledged under any loan agreements. Criminalization of evasion from the alienation of agricultural land as collateral will prevent the risks of acquiring Ukrainian agricultural lands by foreign-owned banking institutions. It is concluded that the banking system will only perform the functions of an investor in the agricultural sector of the economy, so there is a need to strengthen the state regulation of the land market in Ukraine.

Handbuch Politische Ökologie

“…Dadurch nehmen nicht nur → Konf likte um Land ab, sondern auch der Zugang zu Krediten werde überhaupt erst ermöglicht. Dies wiederum stelle den Grundstein für unternehmerisches Handeln -das Land gehe an die Person, die es am effizientesten bewirtschaften kann; die Finanzierung von notwendigen Investitionen sei dadurch gesichert und fördere so ökonomisches → Wachstum und damit auch die Reduktion von Armut(Kurylo et al 2020; kritisch dazu: de Soto 2000;Loehr 2012). Der Weltagrarbericht (o.J.)…”

Directions and risks of legal rights enforcement by territorial communities after the opening of the agricultural land market in Ukraine

“…The land market opening and the growing importance of the agricultural sector are expected to contribute to the innovative restructuring of the agrarian sector in the Ukrainian economy. The land market opening resulted from private land ownership, which helps raise funds for the agricultural production development on a mortgage basis (Kurylo et al, 2020).…”