Division of land and farm size leading to pixelated proximity

Latvia has gone through 4 severe changes in land size and possession, which has resulted in a landscape of pixelated proximity. A land where the owner is disconnected from economic and geographic logic in the current capitalistic world.

Through the lens of land division different historical periods can be seen. Due to the frequent shifts in policies and leading political regime farmlands have often fluctuated in scale. As a result, incessant change in land policies and land division has rooted deep in Latvian culture. It's represented very accurately in the first literary novel in Latvian language 'Mērnieku laiki' (Reinis Kaudzīte and Matīss Kaudzīte). It displays perfectly the relationship the new owner had with their property when land had been redistributed of the vast manors of the german lords by the surveyors. The suspicion of the common people versus the dishonesty to receive more property. In this period landless farmers for the first time in history gained ownership and decision rights on their land, as a result social situations in the countryside changed drastically. For the first time in history large parcels were divided into smaller plots of single homesteads, viensētas, and the despots were driven out of the country.[…] The same is happening nowadays, when bigger plots are divided in smaller pieces, only now the plots are getting even smaller. During World War I, the german occupants endeavoured for the last time to receive their control back from the small farmers. Nevertheless, at the end of the war, after the declaration of independence of Latvia, the large estates became state ownership. The newly erected state of Latvia distributed this property to its inhabitants as part of the first agrarian reformation and its peace politics. The reform included confiscation of land of manors, buildings, inventory, domestic animals which was all included in State Land Fond. Starting from 1920 to 1937 the land was distributed between stateless persons and small farmers. 

Starting 1918 up to 1940 1934-1936 Latvia carried out first agrarian reformation, which resulted in a state based on farmers and distributed land in many small properties via a process of nationalisation of the vast german landlord properties. It ensured that everyone aged 18 to 65 without property smaller than 22ha had the right to receive a piece of land from the land bank. The small farms ensured everyone could cultivate their own food, which led to social and cultural calmness of the new Latvians.[…] New policies led to the highest livelihood to this day, which was in 1936. The many homesteads, viensētas, that still mark the countryside are a quiet memory of those placid times.

As explained in the first chapter, during Russian occupation in 1940 private property was abolished and the rise of large farms started, kolkhozes. The collective approach resulted in massive shifts in life of peasants and the economy. The rural residents altered into a more urban typology.

With the fall of the Soviet Union a fourth grand reformation on the landscape occurred. The main concern of the land reform was to return the ownership rights of land and real estate to people who were owners before the loss of independence of Latvia in 1940 or descendants of the owners therefore the momentum of historical justice was a cornerstone of the land reform, as it was done in the first large reformation in 1918. Only later it was recognized that such an approach created the sort of landowners who were not farmers themselves or they were living abroad and therefore their capacity to manage agricultural land was limited. Many of those who restored the land ownership rights lacked sufficient resources and necessary equipment to start an efficient and modern agricultural business. […]

According to the Latvia EU accession treaty, restrictions for citizens of other EU Member States to buy agricultural land in Latvia were into force during the transition period until 2011. The main idea was that farms of new member states were not developed enough to compete with foreign capital as they have not accumulated enough capital. Another threat was that agricultural land could be an object of illegal deals as prices were low  and they are also now significantly lower in comparison to agricultural land prices. Prices of agricultural land and competition for it have grown substantially prior to the opening of the agricultural land market for citizens of the European Union.[…] The possible loss of local farmers in a competition for agricultural land and fear of speculative activities created demand for stricter regulations of the agricultural land market. It had to be controlled by the law 'On privatization of land in rural areas’, it put a number of restrictions on foreign citizens and companies to acquire land in rural areas putting most restrictions on acquisition of agricultural land in particular. One of the restrictions being that foreigners who want to purchase agricultural land have to know Latvian language.

Currently the overall idea of the government is that rural territories should be inhabited, vibrant and with diversified economic activities therefore it is important to balance economic efficiency with availability of agricultural land for everyone who wishes to start farming business. At the same time in 2018 the volume of agricultural land sales have dropped by 30% compared to 2013. One of the reasons for this is lack of good agricultural land on the market, although this depends on the region.