Agricultural land reform in Moldova

During transition, Moldova has pursued a policy of small-scale land privatisiation and a sucession of decollectivisation initiatives. Small-scale land reform has been important for bolstering the real incomes of rural households but living standards have continued to fall. While initial political resistance to decollectivisation has been overcome, serious challenges remain for co-ordinating agricultural production, procurement and marketing from a newly fragmented structure of land ownership. The delay in issuing formal land titles has inhibited the development of land market. The former large-scale collective and state farms provided several key social services in rural areas and the delivery of these services in the post-collectivised era also represents a serious challenge.