3 New Trends and Drivers for Agricultural Land Use in Germany
57
3.5 Conclusions
Recent developments regarding agricultural land use and land markets in Germany
show that land has become an increasingly scarce natural resource faced with
competing and rising demands. The general picture is that agricultural land prices
have gone up considerably and there are ongoing and accentuated as well as new
conflicts. Basic conflicts refer to agricultural land use in competition to nature and
natural resource protection as well as to new demands on agricultural land use related
to bioenergy production. Key drivers are international agricultural markets and prices
as well as changing policy frameworks related to the CAP and to the REA.
What kind of policy conclusions can be drawn? First, the scarcity of a limited
natural resource like land has to be recognized and can hardly be changed. This
requires proper policy-making between market efficiency and policy intervention.
Second, policy-making should generally avoid contributing to land scarcity and
enhancing land use conflicts. The support of bioenergy production under the REA
is a point in case: There may be better ways to achieve renewable energy objectives instead of directly enhancing land use conflicts. Also, indirect and international
land use effects should not be neglected in national and EU policy-making in order
to contribute to a proper global land use between food and energy production and
nature and natural resource protection. Third, interventions on land markets will
become a key policy issue. There is an increasing debate in Germany and notably
in East Germany on land market interventions. Various political claims have been
put forward such as the transparency on agricultural land ownerships, authorization
for share deals, and the establishment of a public fund for land (Agra-Europe 2017).
It needs to be questioned whether such political ideas are worth to be pursued, but
finding the right answers to the real problems on land markets is a key challenge for
the future.
References
Adelmann, W., Sturm, P., Stettmer, C., Burkart-Aicher, B., & Hoiss, B. (2017). Kommentar:
Faktencheck zu den “neuen Bauernregeln”. Anliegen Natur,, 39(1), 136–143.
Agra-Europe. (2016). Preisanstieg für Agrarland etwas gedämpft. 34/16, Markt + Meinung 10–12.
Agra-Europe. (2017). Investoren weiter auf dem ostdeutschen Bodenmarkt aktiv. 26/17, Länderberichte 13.
Agra-Europe. (2019). Noch keine Entscheidung im Düngestreit. 36/19, EU-Nachrichten 8.
ATB. (2017): 22. Workshop Computer-Bildanalyse und Unbemannte autonom fliegende Systeme
in der Landwirtschaft. 23. Workshop Computer-Bildanalyse in der Landwirtschaft. Bornimer
Agrartechnische Berichte, Heft 93.
Balmann, A. (2015). Braucht der ostdeutsche Bodenmarkt eine stärkere Regulierung? Agra-Europe
13/15, Länderberichte Sonderbeilage.
BfN. (2015). Artenschutz-Report 2015. Tiere und Pflanzen in Deutschland. https://www.bfn.de/fil
eadmin/BfN/presse/2015/Dokumente/Artenschutzreport_Download.pdf (22 November 2019).
BfN. (2017). Agrar-Report 2017. Biologische Vielfalt in der Agrarlandschaft. https://www.bfn.de/
fileadmin/BfN/landwirtschaft/Dokumente/BfN-Agrar-Report_2017.pdf (22 November 2019).
57
3.5 Conclusions
Recent developments regarding agricultural land use and land markets in Germany
show that land has become an increasingly scarce natural resource faced with
competing and rising demands. The general picture is that agricultural land prices
have gone up considerably and there are ongoing and accentuated as well as new
conflicts. Basic conflicts refer to agricultural land use in competition to nature and
natural resource protection as well as to new demands on agricultural land use related
to bioenergy production. Key drivers are international agricultural markets and prices
as well as changing policy frameworks related to the CAP and to the REA.
What kind of policy conclusions can be drawn? First, the scarcity of a limited
natural resource like land has to be recognized and can hardly be changed. This
requires proper policy-making between market efficiency and policy intervention.
Second, policy-making should generally avoid contributing to land scarcity and
enhancing land use conflicts. The support of bioenergy production under the REA
is a point in case: There may be better ways to achieve renewable energy objectives instead of directly enhancing land use conflicts. Also, indirect and international
land use effects should not be neglected in national and EU policy-making in order
to contribute to a proper global land use between food and energy production and
nature and natural resource protection. Third, interventions on land markets will
become a key policy issue. There is an increasing debate in Germany and notably
in East Germany on land market interventions. Various political claims have been
put forward such as the transparency on agricultural land ownerships, authorization
for share deals, and the establishment of a public fund for land (Agra-Europe 2017).
It needs to be questioned whether such political ideas are worth to be pursued, but
finding the right answers to the real problems on land markets is a key challenge for
the future.
References
Adelmann, W., Sturm, P., Stettmer, C., Burkart-Aicher, B., & Hoiss, B. (2017). Kommentar:
Faktencheck zu den “neuen Bauernregeln”. Anliegen Natur,, 39(1), 136–143.
Agra-Europe. (2016). Preisanstieg für Agrarland etwas gedämpft. 34/16, Markt + Meinung 10–12.
Agra-Europe. (2017). Investoren weiter auf dem ostdeutschen Bodenmarkt aktiv. 26/17, Länderberichte 13.
Agra-Europe. (2019). Noch keine Entscheidung im Düngestreit. 36/19, EU-Nachrichten 8.
ATB. (2017): 22. Workshop Computer-Bildanalyse und Unbemannte autonom fliegende Systeme
in der Landwirtschaft. 23. Workshop Computer-Bildanalyse in der Landwirtschaft. Bornimer
Agrartechnische Berichte, Heft 93.
Balmann, A. (2015). Braucht der ostdeutsche Bodenmarkt eine stärkere Regulierung? Agra-Europe
13/15, Länderberichte Sonderbeilage.
BfN. (2015). Artenschutz-Report 2015. Tiere und Pflanzen in Deutschland. https://www.bfn.de/fil
eadmin/BfN/presse/2015/Dokumente/Artenschutzreport_Download.pdf (22 November 2019).
BfN. (2017). Agrar-Report 2017. Biologische Vielfalt in der Agrarlandschaft. https://www.bfn.de/
fileadmin/BfN/landwirtschaft/Dokumente/BfN-Agrar-Report_2017.pdf (22 November 2019).