Maintenance and financing of land drainage in Lithuania

Abstract

The paper analyses the current situation in land reclamation sector in Lithuania and discusses agricultural drainage management under the conditions of market economy. Land reclamation practice plays a significant role in agriculture of Lithuania. Until 2004, about 2.98 million hectares (85.5%) of agricultural land were drained. After regaining independence in 1990, the ownership rights to land were restored. Unfortunately, privatisation of land reclamation structures was not started along with the land reform. Drainage systems were included into the State property; their maintenance is government-funded. Because of restricted national budget resources, this allocation makes only 4.4 € ha-1 per year on average, which is largely insufficient as drainage systems continuously deteriorate. The state bailout measures for maintenance of land drainage should be optimised and geared to the economic expediency. Four scenarios of the reallocation of subsidies for land drainage are submitted for approval. Having applied the methodology suggested, priority should be given to the regions where revenue from agriculture is highest. Therefore in the region of middle Lithuania where water regime control is profitable, current subsidies for land drainage would increase by index 1.24±0.10. In the territory where land productivity is low and the percentage of abandoned land is more than the mean value of the country, the financing would be reduced by index 0.71±0.17.