The Parliamentary Hearings "Land in the Ukrainian Destiny: Situation in the Land Sector, Legislative Support of Land Relations, and Implementation of Land Laws" were held at The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on March 23

Opening the hearings, the Head of the Parliament reminded that the legislative base on land issues includes 37 Laws of Ukraine, 64 resolutions of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 178 decrees of the President of Ukraine, 24 orders of the President of Ukraine, 84 resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and 758 normative acts. "Land is not an economic category, so it should be treated with responsibility, as it is not only the national heritage and strategic resource of Ukraine," stated the Head of the Parliament. 

Dwelling upon the introduction of land market, V.Lytvyn focused on the possible positive and negative consequences of it. This will allow the land owners to choose between three options: production of agricultural commodities on their own land with further market sale, lease of land to other agricultural producer, and sale or mortgage of land as a source of income. "However, removal of the moratorium will have a great institutional importance. Today, 84 per cent of farm land and gardens, and one third of natural forage lands are in the private ownership of the rural people," informed the Head of the Parliament.

According to V. Lytvyn, one may probably refer increase of the investment capacity to the benefits of the land market introduction, namely, by the development of mortgage crediting and its positive impact on prices on the land lease market. He is convinced that development of the land market will ensure gradual concentration of land ownership to increase the land capacity of the Agrarian Fund as a taxation object.

At the same time, the Head of the Parliament mentioned possible threats and challenges of the increase of land deficit. He stated that according to the experts, "at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, new forms of colonization have appeared with the help of a seemingly civilized global land reallocation." V. Lytvyn also focused on such dangerous factors as export orientation of produce in Ukraine, technogenic overwork and exploitation of natural productive capacity of soil.

He calls for taking into account that the land has been divided into shares, while people have obtained the right of private ownership of land. It is necessary to follow the Constitution and the Land Code, "living in reality, not illusions." 

Mykola Bezuhlyi, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, attached great importance to the systemic vision of the agrarian relations further to the analysis of separate inter-connected and inter-dependent issues of agricultural development and sector on the whole. He stated that outlooks of agrarian relations development in Ukraine should be considered from three aspects: political, economic, and social ones.

According to the First Deputy Minister, the political aspect is such that under Article 13 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the land is the object of property rights of the Ukrainian people. He believes that economic aspect presupposes development of land relations, and arrangement of the most favourable organizational-economic conditions to promote long-term realization of land productivity. As to the social aspect of the land reform, M. Bezuhlyi stated, "It should be considered in light of an assumption that rural people should live and work on land, getting income from this activity and arranging proper conditions for spiritual and cultural development of the rural community."  

According to the First Deputy Minister, introduction of the market of agricultural land should guarantee that people will fully realize their constitutional right for land in part of free administration of land property. It will also regulate the procedure of holding land tenders. M. Bezuhlyi stressed that financial support of the agricultural producers will increase due to the mortgage or lease of land.  The Ministry developed a new system of crediting of agricultural producers, which will attract more than UAH 200 billion with a ten-per-cent yearly interest rate into the production sector. This will allow technical re-equipment of the agricultural sector and introduction of new technologies.   

Hryhorii Kalietnik, Chairman of the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations, stressed, "Introduction of the land market should answer public expectations, while the land should remain for the state and the citizens of Ukraine."  

The participants of the parliamentary hearings stressed that the primary goal of the land reform in Ukraine is provision of food safety, and increase of cost-effective agricultural production.  

The Chair read out the letter of the Association of Farmers and Private Land Owners of Ukraine, "Given the provisions of Constitution of Ukraine and considering the threats to the national security of Ukraine, we recommend organizing an all-Ukrainian referendum on the agricultural land market; adopting and implementing the laws on the state land cadaster, state mortgage bank, agricultural associations on the regulation of agricultural lands."   

The participants of the parliamentary hearings called for focusing on adoption of Laws that are required to terminate the moratorium on purchase and sale of agricultural lands, as defined by item 15 of Chapter X "Transitional Provisions" of the Land Code. They are convinced that it shall guarantee a proper agricultural land circulation and finalize the land reform.

The participants of the parliamentary hearings singled out the following principal directions of the land relations development for the nearest future:

Improvement of the system of state management of land resources;

Completion of the necessary legislative and normative base on land relations;

Arrangement of conditions for the normal functioning of land market, mechanisms of its regulation and effective agricultural lands circulation;

Formation of a database for the protection of state land property rights with the help of a single automatic system of state land cadaster and a respective land-information database;

Strategic planning of land use and land development, separation of lands in state and municipal ownership, land inventory and state border demarcation;

Completion of standard normative measure of land cost, formation of a system of economic stimulation of rational land use and protection, support of investment-attractive land use.

In the result of the parliamentary hearings, the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations is to draft recommendations to be discussed in the session hall. If the recommendations are supported, they will be adopted by a respective resolution.