HUP: Incorrect data shapes self-destructive agricultural policy

HUP – The Association of Food Industry and Agriculture has long been warning about the wrong agricultural policies that are today, without a doubt, visible through food prices, increased imports of food and agricultural products, and a decrease in production, productivity, and competitiveness of domestic agriculture.

HUP aims to position itself as a constructive and responsible partner in these challenging times for Croatian agriculture, pointing to one of the fundamental problems that lead to incorrect agricultural policies and strategies in Croatia, which significantly affect and have affected the unenviable position of the Croatian agricultural sector. This problem is the incorrect data on the total agricultural land available to Croatian agricultural producers, based on which a self-destructive agricultural policy is shaped, the association stated.

The Croatian expert public, academic community, and politics use the data of 2.6 to three million hectares of agricultural land suitable for agricultural production in Croatia, mostly based on cadastral data. Due to the misalignment of official records with the actual state on the ground, incorrect methods of recording agricultural areas, and inaccurate records of the types of agricultural land use, we arrive at inaccurate data on areas suitable for agricultural production. For example, a cadastral parcel of one thousand hectares in Velebit, recorded as pasture, arable land, and forest, which official statistics recognize as suitable for agricultural production, is not suitable for even one hectare in reality.

A parcel of five hundred hectares in Lika or Dalmatian hinterland, to which ARKOD recognizes only ten hectares suitable for agriculture because the rest is stone, is recorded by official statistics as all five hundred hectares suitable for agricultural production. A parcel of one hundred hectares in Banovina and Kordun, which is recorded in the cadastre as arable land, is now 90 hectares of forest, which should be managed by Croatian forests, with only ten hectares of overgrown land that can be put into agricultural production after clearing, while state statistics consider it entirely arable land. These and many other errors in the way agricultural land records are maintained cumulatively lead to errors in areas suitable for agriculture of up to 50 percent, the association stated.

The consequences are unimplementable measures

We see these inaccurate records in practice in the example of a municipality that has data in its and state statistics indicating it has 11,000 hectares of agricultural land available. After the statements of state institutions during the preparation of the agricultural land management program, such as Croatian forests, Croatian waters, and environmental protection, the municipality has 4,500 hectares available for lease, including stone, vegetation, and shrubs within the parcels, and after registration in ARKOD and acceptable 50 percent of the area, the municipality goes from the initial 11,000 hectares to less than three thousand hectares suitable for agricultural production. All agricultural and demographic measures planned for that municipality become unimplementable due to the incorrect data on areas.

In Croatia, 1,160,287.39 hectares of agricultural land and 164,629 agricultural holdings (PG) are registered in the agricultural land use record – ARKOD, which gives an average of 7.05 hectares of land use (agricultural holding) per PG. There are still about two hundred thousand hectares of land being used that is not registered in ARKOD (due to unresolved property-legal relations and the inability to register such land in the use record) as well as one hundred thousand hectares of land that is overgrown and can be put into function. According to these data, estimates suggest that Croatia has a maximum of 1,500,000 hectares (one million five hundred thousand hectares) of agricultural land suitable for agricultural production.

If the Republic of Croatia wanted to reach the EU average in the use of agricultural areas, where according to EUROSTAT the average size of an agricultural holding is 17.4 hectares, it would need to have 2,864,545 hectares of agricultural land available for the same number of PGs it currently has. This is a difference of 1,704,257 hectares (one million seven hundred thousand hectares) of land that does not exist in Croatia. If we want to increase the size of holdings with the land that the Republic of Croatia actually has, to the EU average of 17.4 hectares per PG, then we would need to have 66,683 PGs, which is 97,946 PGs fewer than we currently have. From the accurate numbers on areas suitable for agricultural production, we conclude that the previous policy of increasing the number of PGs without available land in Croatia is incorrect and that all future policies, laws, and regulations must focus on the existing, best primary agricultural producers and on increasing their yields, productivity, competitiveness, and long-term sustainability.

We have destroyed a good producer

How incorrect data can negatively impact agricultural production is also demonstrated by the Law on Agricultural Land. Most previous, as well as the current Law, was created and adopted with the assumption that there is one million hectares of land in Croatia that is free and no one uses it. The regulation on scoring in the tender for leasing state agricultural land is designed not to score production but social-local elements, assuming that there is one million hectares of land that could sustain such a model of land management. In reality, we have received tenders where there is no free land and tenders where land is taken from farmers who are regular producers, who respect the economic program, who regularly pay land leases and all other financial obligations.

Farmers who lease 50 hectares of land and based on that land have regular production, built farms or production facilities, machinery and equipment, are having their land taken away by the incorrect Law, and the land passes into the hands of a new farmer. The land does not change the type of production. On 50 hectares, we have the same yields and values of production. We have destroyed a good producer and on the same 50 hectares, we have incurred new debts, reduced competitiveness, and productivity. By changing the user, we have not gained any solution, but we have created new problems in production.

The existing Law on Agricultural Land is difficult to implement because municipalities and cities do not want to take land from real producers and know that the Law is poorly written. For this reason, most municipalities and cities are forced to limit the maximum areas in tenders for lease, which leads to the fragmentation of formed land units and long-term destroys agricultural production. In the discussion about the new Law on Agricultural Land, all interested parties, the expert public, and the relevant ministry must consider the actual data on agricultural land suitable for agricultural production in Croatia. The Law on Agricultural Land must be written for primary agricultural producers.

The Law must not allow the taking of land from regular producers, must not allow the fragmentation of economic units formed over decades, nor allow that land to be put up for tender, and must be focused on increasing yields, production, productivity, and competitiveness on real rather than virtual land, conclude HUP – The Association of Food Industry and Agriculture.