In recent decades, Russia has experienced substantial transformations in agricultural land tenure. Post-Soviet reforms have shaped land distribution patterns but the impacts of these on agricultural use of land remain under-investigated. On a regional scale, there is still a knowledge gap in terms of knowing to what extent the variations in the compositions of agricultural land funds may be explained by changes in the acreage of other land categories. Using a case analysis of 82 of Russia’s territories from 2010 to 2018, the authors attempted to study the structural variations by picturing the compositions of regional land funds and mapping agricultural land distributions based on ranking “land activity”. Correlation analysis of centered log-ratio transformed compositional data revealed that in agriculture-oriented regions, the proportion of cropland was depressed by agriculture-to-urban and agriculture-to-industry land loss. In urbanized territories, the compositions of agricultural land funds were predominantly affected by changes in the acreage of industrial, transportation, and communication lands. In underpopulated territories in the north and far east of Russia, the acreages of cropland and perennial planting were strongly correlated with those of disturbed and barren lands. As the first attempt at such analysis in Russia, the conversion of cadastral classification data into land-rating values enabled the identification of region-to-region mismatches between the cadaster-based mapping and ranking-based distribution of agricultural lands.

Structural Variations in the Composition of Land Funds at Regional Scales across Russia

The qualitative peculiarity of the existing land market in rural areas requires constant assessment of both the mechanisms that control its development and the direction of changes in its segments. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to analyze the territorial features of the development of the agricultural land market in modern conditions of the implementation of the import substitution policy. The research was carried out across the constituent entities of the Russian Federation of the Northwestern Federal District (NWFD) and in more detail on the example of the municipal districts of the Leningrad region using data from Rosstat, Rosreestr, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and other sources. Statistical methods of information processing were used. Based on the analysis of the dynamics of changes in the size of the cultivated areas, it was concluded that there were unfavorable tendencies as to the demand for arable land in the conditions of the Northwestern Federal District. Due to it, the reduction in the area under crops occurs in regions with more favorable conditions for agricultural activities. As the result, the growth in the number of transactions for the sale and purchase of agricultural land in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District is not sustainable. On the example of the municipal districts of the Leningrad region, the features of the primary and secondary market for agricultural land were revealed: the supply of land plots exceeds demand and is localized in the suburban area, such types of land turnover as the purchase and sale and lease of land plots have limited development. Depending on the location and other rental characteristics, the level of land prices, even within the boundaries of one municipal district, varies from 2.5 to 15 times. It has been established that the development of subsystems of market turnover of agricultural land is closely related to the conditions and results of economic activity in rural areas.

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Shu Jiaxing

Papers

Study of the Russian land market