The condition of the land registry is in such tatters that the state only recently discovered several hundred thousand hectares of agricultural land it did not know about
Along with people, the most valuable resource Croatia has is certainly land. This fact, however, never sees the light of day except ahead of parliamentary elections when political parties present their programmes. These documents often cite agriculture as a strategic sector. Although many economy branches, including the crucially important tourism, require quality land management, in Croatia that approach is missing completely. The results of this deficit are best seen in the agriculture sector, due to which we can declare this branch the most devastated, if not dying economy sector, Jutarnji List wrote on July 18, 2016.
The production of grain and other agriculture products and cattle has been reduced by one fifth since 2009. At the same time, cattle production has increased in the region by 14% and agriculture products by 8%. This means that the rising number of tourists are offered less domestic food. An intense agricultural production demand, among other things, large areas of land. Areas farmed by our farmers are small. The average farm uses 5.6 hectares of land, while the EU average is 14.5 hectares. The state, owner of one third of all agricultural land, has 500 thousand parcels less than one hectare in size. Even if the decision is made to group those parcels, the second large deficit will slow down the implementation – disorderly land register.
The state according to the register owns 70 thousand hectares of land described in the register as “national property.” The land register is in such a mess that the state just recently found another hundred thousand hectares of agricultural land it did not know about. That and any other land is harder to group if the data in the register does not fit the actual situation, which is the case with most parcels.
The basic problem is that the only systematic measurement of 5.6 million hectares of Croatian land was made in the mid 19th Century, at the time when Croatia was an integral part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, followed by a neglect of registering property rights in socialism. Despite the terrible condition of two key and registers, Croatia has so far been able to complete the renovation of data for only 5 percent of the total parcels.
The disorder in the land register affects not only agriculture. It has direct consequences in tourism, but also other economy branches as it complicates investments. It also slows down legal processes and security. The reparation of the land register is a cost that does not see a return on investment in a four-year election cycle, so political leaders are often unmotivated to begin them. So it is not a surprise Croatia hasn’t moved much beyond the starting point. So political parties can go on swearing by agriculture, but it definitely will not have the pre-conditions to be our strategic activity.
