All over Europe
Here you can find analyses of the situation regarding access to land across a range of European countries: what are the main features of the land market and of entry into farming? How do the legal and policy frameworks facilitate or hinder access to land for agroecology? What can we learn from good practices from these countries?
Land Bank
Network
School
Farmers Union
Research Institute
Belgium
Belgium has a long-standing agricultural history. For centuries small-holders produced food for the population whereas larger farms produced the primary resources for a flourishing textile industry, such as flax and wool.
For a long time, Belgian farming was characterised by a high degree of diversity, reflecting the diversity of agro-geological zones. However, as in most European countries the diversity of agricultural models is diminishing quickly in Belgium following a structural decrease in the number of farms and growing land concentration. Between 1980 and 2014 67% of European farms disappeared. Wallonia and Flanders show the same trend, i.e. a yearly loss of 3.3%.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Belgium’s Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
De Landgenoten (which means “fellow countryman” in Dutch) aims to provide access to agricultural land for professional organic farmers in Flanders, because it believes they have a central role in current and future food safety and food security.
Belgian cooperative company which facilitates access to land for agroecological projects and manages farm land as a common good. This implies a close collaboration between citizens, public bodies and farmers.
Czech Republic
Access to land for small-scale farmers and new entrants is a new topic in the Czech Republic as in recent decades the focus has been mainly paid to the support of conventional intensive agriculture. This was mainly due to the fact that the Czech Republic has the largest agricultural production blocks with the highest proportion of rented land in Europe. On the other hand, there is a very high ownership fragmentation of agricultural land.
However, access to land is currently becoming an important issue in the context of sustainable food production and protection of landscape stability in the Czech Republic. Therefore the non-governmental initiatives have started raising awareness about the importance of a responsible way of farming, its positive impacts on environment, accessibility of farmland for agroecological farmers and affordability of fresh and organic food through their campaigns and programs. Access to land is mainly hard for new entrants in the agricultural sector due to the extreme ownership fragmentation, land prices and insecure tenancy system.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Czech Republic’s Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
Nadace Pro půdu is an organisation based in Czech Republic, enabling small-scale organic farmers to access land with the vision to protect soil from degradation, ensure its health and fertility, and raise the awareness of public around the topics of soil care and access to land.
Denmark
Denmark’s agricultural sector has undergone dramatic consolidation, with farms declining from 206,000 in 1951 to just 31,400 in 2021. Today’s average farm spans 202 hectares, reflecting a shift toward industrial-scale agriculture that dominates the country’s 2.6 million hectares of agricultural land (61% of total area).
Organic farming represents 11.4% of utilized agricultural area across 3,960 farms, but faces significant barriers to expansion. Rising land prices—reaching historic highs—create fierce competition between organic farmers and industrial operations. Large-scale conventional producers, particularly in livestock, can outbid smaller agroecological enterprises for available land.
The aging farmer population (average age 57) compounds succession challenges, with only 23% of farmers under 50. While young farmers receive establishment subsidies up to 729,000 DKK, land access remains the primary obstacle. Industrial farmers benefit from higher profit margins that enable premium land purchases, concentrating ownership further.
Denmark’s liberalized land legislation since 2014-2015 offers minimal regulation, allowing market forces to drive consolidation. The powerful Landbrug og Fødevarer union has successfully lobbied against environmental restrictions that might level the playing field for sustainable agriculture.
Creative solutions like Dansk Økojord’s landbank model emerge as responses to systemic barriers, while alliances with water utilities and nature foundations offer new pathways for agroecological transition despite policy limitation.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Denmark’s Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
Danmarks Økologiske Jordbrugsfond is a subsidiary of the Danish Organic Farming Foundation (Danmarks Økologiske Jordbrugsfond), established in February 2017 by the Danish Society for Nature Conservation and Organic Denmark. Its mission is to acquire conventional farmland and convert it to organic production, leasing it to committed farmers under long-term agreements.
Their approach is holistic, with a strong focus on:
- Protecting drinking water by avoiding pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, particularly in water catchment areas.
- Promoting biodiversity and nature conservation through land management plans applied to all farms.
- Combating climate change by supporting regenerative practices such as carbon sequestration in soils, agroforestry, low tillage, and extensive livestock systems.
- Supporting new generations of farmers by lowering entry barriers for young and innovative producers through access to land without requiring large capital.
With around 13 farm projects across Denmark, Dansk Økojord helps secure clean water, restore natural habitats, and grow organic food. The initiative is financed by over 900 shareholders and offers a triple return on investment: ecological, economic, and social.
France
France has a rich history of land market regulations as well as of policies protecting and promoting family farming. Despite these policies, France is today faced with similar challenges to the rest of Europe: farmland is converted to non-agricultural uses, peasant farming is disappearing, many future farmers are struggling to find land and get started, and the environmental damage caused by agriculture is high.
Thanks to cultural attachment to food and agriculture and a rich network of rural and agricultural organisations, France has also provided fertile soil for many civic initiatives and experiments.
Detailed Informations about the Background and France’s
Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
Terre de Liens is a civic organisation promoting land preservation and access to farmland for organic, peasant farmers in France. It engages citizens, advises farmers and local authorities and directly acquires farmland which is rented on the long term to organic farmers.
Germany
Germany has seen huge structural changes in agriculture since the end of the second world war and especially in the last 25 years. Today, Germany is one of the main European agricultural powers but this evolution has come at a major cost. Problems now faced in the country include the disconnect between agriculture and society, the reduction of agricultural products to mere commodities, the loss of peasant farms and farmers, and the loss of (bio)diversity and knowledge.
Farmland has also experienced a number of key changes, which have resulted in difficulties accessing land for agroecological farmers: the concentration of land, increasing environmental degradation, the lack of farm successors, the lack of access to capital for small farmers, and increasing land prices.
The current policy framework regulating land markets and land use, despite some progressive rules, is largely inefficient in the face of these difficulties. On a local level, a number of community-based initiatives are developing to free land and make it available to organic or biodynamic farming, reviving and transforming the previous similar wave in the 1960s.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Germany’s
Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
The BioBoden cooperative was established to secure more land for environmentally friendly agriculture which conserves resources. It acquires land as well as enterprises which are for sale and leases them to organic farmers on a long term basis at an affordable price.
The Kulturland cooperative encourages supporters of community supported organic farms to buy shares or give additional loans. With this money we buy farmland and lease it to farmers on a long term basis.
The Netzwerk Flächensicherung is a platform of organisations in Germany working to secure farmland for ecological, small-scale, and community-based agriculture. By promoting non-speculative land ownership and fostering collaboration across sectors, the network advocates for fair and sustainable access to land.
Agronauten are a non-profit association that researches and communicates many aspects related to food and farming culture – especially regional, organic agriculture and food systems that are viable for the future.
Romania
Romania is a country of peasants, with a long deep history of peasant agriculture and a strong cultural link to the land. This has survived despite the efforts of past empires and communist regimes to destroy it.
Today, peasant culture remains the bedrock of the Romanian people in a changing time. Unfortunately, across Romania, land and natural resources have become the object of speculation and massive investment. Regardless of the resource exploited, the lands of small-scale peasant farmers’ are being grabbed and transformed, with far-reaching effects. The purpose of these grabs is multi-layered – agriculture, mining, energy, tourism, water resources, speculation – and the process is weakening rural economies and limiting the access to land for young and future farmers.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Romania’s
Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
ALPA (Acces la Pământ pentru Agroecologie) is a Romanian land-trust initiative based in the Kalotaszeg bioregion, which secures farmland in trust and offers it on long‑term leases to aspiring agroecological farmers. With its current portfolio of approximately 10 hectares, ALPA actively stewards land for regenerative farming, biodiversity, and local community vitality, fostering sustainable, nature-focused livelihoods
Supporting traditional organic farming in Romania. Eco Ruralis envisions a society that is environmentally sustainable, economically fair and socially just where peasants are the central component of our food system.
Spain
Spain, like other EU countries, has experienced rapid intensification and specialisation of agriculture. Due to national history and late accession to the European Economic Community (1986), this process took place very fast, and with devastating effects on peasant farming, with the disappearance of many farms, the replacement of family labour by waged labour, and the decline of rural areas and population.
On a policy level, Spain has failed to deploy effective access to land policies. In some regions, egional governments established public land banks but their actual impact is rather anecdotal. Land market regulations are little developed and ineffective. They do not counter the current tendency of a loss of 83 farms per day. Environment policies relating to farmland and rural areas are still focused on preserving biodiversity in a way disconnected from the farm activity.
This analysis provides a special focus on Catalonia, as it is the area of practical experience and knowledge of the organisations engaged in this network. The situation in Catalonia is very similar to the overall Spanish situation. One of the key feature is the prevalence of middle-size livestock farms, very integrated in industrial agrofood chains. Another big difference is the increasing entrepreneurship around organic farming, including agroecological forms. Besides, an agricultural stewardship strategy linked to some protected areas started very recently (2013) in Catalonia.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Spain’s
Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
Association fostering land stewardship as a conservation strategy for the natural, cultural and landscape resources and values of Catalonia and Europe.
An association with the aim of guaranteeing generational renewal through the incorporation of people into the extensive livestock breeding, the sustainable management of farms and the revitalization of the sector making it more economically viable.
Ukraine
Ukraine’s agricultural sector, contributing 10.9% of GDP and employing 2.5 million people, faces unprecedented challenges. The 2022 Russian invasion has devastated agriculture, with 20.3% of farmland unavailable and production declining 30%. War damage totals $10.3 billion, forcing 25% of agricultural households to halt or reduce operations.
Before the war, Ukraine’s 42.7 million hectares of agricultural land supported over 15,600 enterprises, 50,000 farming households, and 3.9 million peasant farms. However, extreme land concentration persists—agroholdings like Kernel control up to 500,000 hectares, while 7 million peasants received only certificates during 1990s land reform, with 80% forced to lease their plots at below-market rates.
The 2021 land market opening, passed during COVID-19 restrictions limiting public participation, favored large operators over small farmers. While individuals initially had purchase priority, wartime conditions and limited finances prevented most peasants from buying land. Current 10,000-hectare purchase limits still enable massive concentration.
Foreign investment compounds the issue – 310 deals covering 4.2 million hectares involve 29 countries, with European investors controlling significant Ukrainian farmland. Organic farming remains minimal at 0.9% of agricultural land, dominated by large enterprises rather than family farms.
State policy historically prioritized export-oriented monoculture over rural development, creating stark inequality between agribusiness elites and struggling small producers who lack political influence.
Detailed Informations about the Background and Ukraine’s
Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
ADRI is a Ukrainian non-profit organization founded in 2015. It brings together experts and stakeholders to foster knowledge in agriculture and land issues. ADRI is a founding member and coordinator of the Ukrainian Rural Development Network (URDN), a broad civil society alliance advocating for smallholder farmers and peasant rights.
The organization is active in research, policy advocacy, training, and the development of local strategies. Its work focuses on access to land, rural socio-economic development, and food sovereignty.
United Kingdom
The UK has a long history of agriculture but also a long and complex relationship with land ownership, beginning with the enclosure of common land by a rich minority in the 18th century.
Today, problems of succession, the rising age of farmers and high rents in an unregulated market, all make it difficult for new entrants to find land for food production. The rising price of land, caused by many factors including investors seeking the tax breaks from agricultural land, together with the drive towards intensive farming and consolidation of agricultural holdings is leading to a rapid decline in the number of UK farmers with 10,000 lost in 2014 alone. What little land does come on the market each year is usually bought at a high price by existing farmers hoping to increase in size in order to compete on the world market.
Detailed Informations about the Background and UK’s
Policy Environment you find in our Resources section.
The BDLT aims to secure farmland in trust for affordable access for biodynamic farmers, for conservation, public access, sustainable and community connected farming and education.
The Soil Association is the UK’s leading organisation campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use. Its Land Trust exists to protect the countryside by acquiring and managing farmland sustainably; and to connect the public with the stewardship of the land.
The Real Farming Trust (RFT) is a UK charity that supports enlightened agriculture – farming that provides good food for everyone forever, without cruelty or injustice and without adversely affecting other people and the biosphere.
Shared Assets is an infrastructure organisation working to create a socially just future through practical projects that build new relationships between people and the land. We work with communities, landowners, researchers and activists to create a world where our relationship to the land is based on stewardship, evidence and justice.
