BETA


2016/2141(INI) State of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead AGRI NOICHL Maria (icon: S&D S&D) URUTCHEV Vladimir (icon: PPE PPE), KUŹMIUK Zbigniew (icon: ECR ECR), MÜLLER Ulrike (icon: ALDE ALDE), HEUBUCH Maria (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE), MOI Giulia (icon: EFDD EFDD), REBEGA Laurenţiu (icon: ENF ENF)
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 54

Events

2017/09/07
   EC - Commission response to text adopted in plenary
Documents
2017/04/27
   EP - Results of vote in Parliament
2017/04/27
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament adopted by 524 votes to 37, with 45 abstentions, a resolution on the state of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers.

Members recalled that there is no exclusive or shared competence of the EU on land, as various EU policies deploy different political, social, cultural and environmental aspects of land management. This creates the need for a more holistic approach to land governance at EU level.

In 2013, in the 27-member EU, only 3.1 % of farms controlled 52.2 % of farmland in Europe. By contrast, in 2013, 76.2 % of farms had the use of only 11.2 % of the agricultural land. This unequal distribution of farmland is the counterpart of unequal distribution of CAP subsidies and runs counter to the European sustainable, multifunctional agricultural model, in which family farms are an important feature.

The concentration of farmland has an adverse effect on the development of rural communities and the socio-economic viability of rural areas, and results in the loss of agricultural jobs.

Farmland management : Member States are called upon, in their public policies, to take better account of farmland conservation and management, and to transfers of land.

Parliament noted that there is a general shortage of comprehensive, transparent, up-to-date, high-value data standardised at European level on price and volume movements on the European land market.

Member States should regularly communicate to each other information about their national legislation regarding land, land use changes and, in particular, cases involving speculative land purchases. They should also create harmonised farmland inventories in which all ownership rights are recorded in an up-to-date database and presented in the form of anonymised, publicly accessible statistics.

The Commission is called upon to:

establish an observatory service for the collection of information and data on the level of farmland concentration throughout the Union; set up a high-level task force to examine the problem of farmland concentration, to conduct a study on the impact that the policy measures taken by the EU and the Member States have on land concentration and agricultural production, and to analyse the risks that land concentration poses for food supply, employment, the environment, soil quality and rural development; publish guidelines on the harmonisation of accounting practices, and to encourage the sharing of best practices in national legislations, in order to identify measures to safeguard farmland and farm activities.

Financing : high investment costs hamper the acquisition and leasing of farmland and forested area for small to medium-sized family and cooperative farms. Members stressed the difficulties of accessing credit in order to acquire land or tenure, especially for new entrants and young farmers and called on the Commission to provide proper instruments, in the framework of the CAP and related policies, that facilitate their entry into farming by ensuring fair access to sustainable credit.

According to Members, farmland should to be given special protection with a view to allowing the Member States, in coordination with local authorities and farmers' organisations, to regulate the sale, use and lease of agricultural land in order to ensure food security.

CAP involvement : although land policy is essentially a matter for the Member States, it may be affected by the CAP, with serious impact on the competitiveness of farms on the internal market. Member States are called upon to give small and medium-sized local producers, new entrants and young farmers – while ensuring equal gender access – priority in the purchase and rental of farmland. Member stated must undertake a targeted examination of the national implementation of the existing CAP with a view to identifying any undesirable effects of the concentration of land.

In this regard, Members welcomed the proposal to simplify the CAP , in particular those measures aimed at reducing costs and administrative burdens for family farms, as well as for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas.

They stated that, under the reformed CAP, ceilings should be introduced, and the direct payments scheme adjusted, in such a way as to give added weight to the first hectares, and that steps should be taken to facilitate investment and the disbursement of direct aid to small farms . The Commission is called on to introduce a more effective aid redistribution system in order to guard against farmland concentration.

Lastly, measures to combat the concentration of agricultural land should be maintained during the development of the draft CAP for the period after 2020.

Documents
2017/04/27
   EP - End of procedure in Parliament
2017/04/26
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2017/03/30
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Details

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted an own-initiative report by Maria NOICHL (S&D, DE) on the state of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers.

The report recalled that there is no exclusive or shared competence of the EU on land, as various EU policies deploy different political, social, cultural and environmental aspects of land management. This creates the need for a more holistic approach to land governance at EU level.

In 2013, in the 27-member EU, only 3.1 % of farms controlled 52.2 % of farmland in Europe. By contrast, in 2013, 76.2 % of farms had the use of only 11.2 % of the agricultural land. This places inequality of land use in the EU.

Too high a concentration of agricultural land splits society, destabilises rural areas, threatens food safety and thus jeopardises the environmental and social objectives of Europe.

Farmland management : the report noted that there is a general shortage of comprehensive, transparent, up-to-date, high-value data standardised at European level on price and volume movements on the European land market.

Member States are called upon to take better account of farmland conservation and management, and to transfers of land in their public policies. They should regularly communicate to each other information about their national legislation regarding land, land use changes and, in particular, cases involving speculative land purchases. They should also create harmonised farmland inventories in which all ownership rights, and rights of use in respect of farm land, are recorded in an up-to-date, accurate and comprehensible manner – while fully respecting the data protection rights of the parties involved – and presented in the form of anonymised, publicly accessible statistics.

The Commission is called upon to:

establish an observatory service for the collection of information and data on the level of farmland concentration throughout the Union; set up a high-level task force to examine the problem of farmland concentration, to conduct a study on the impact that the policy measures taken by the EU and the Member States have on land concentration and agricultural production, and to analyse the risks that land concentration poses for food supply, employment, the environment, soil quality and rural development; publish guidelines on the harmonisation of accounting practices, and to encourage the sharing of best practices in national legislations, in order to identify measures to safeguard farmland and farm activities.

Financing : high investment costs hamper the acquisition and leasing of farmland and forested area for small to medium-sized family and cooperative farms. Members stressed the difficulties of accessing credit in order to acquire land or tenure, especially for new entrants and young farmers and called on the Commission to provide proper instruments, in the framework of the CAP and related policies, that facilitate their entry into farming by ensuring fair access to sustainable credit.

According to Members, farmland should to be given special protection with a view to allowing the Member States, in coordination with local authorities and farmers' organisations, to regulate the sale, use and lease of agricultural land in order to ensure food security.

CAP involvement : although land policy is essentially a matter for the Member States, it may be affected by the CAP, with serious impact on the competitiveness of farms on the internal market. Member States are called upon to give small and medium-sized local producers, new entrants and young farmers – while ensuring equal gender access – priority in the purchase and rental of farmland. Member stated must undertake a targeted examination of the national implementation of the existing CAP with a view to identifying any undesirable effects of the concentration of land.

In this regard, they welcomed the proposal to simplify the CAP , in particular those measures aimed at reducing costs and administrative burdens for family farms, as well as for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas.

They stated that, under the reformed CAP, ceilings should be introduced, and the direct payments scheme adjusted, in such a way as to give added weight to the first hectares, and that steps should be taken to facilitate investment and the disbursement of direct aid to small farms . The Commission is called on to introduce a more effective aid redistribution system in order to guard against farmland concentration.

Documents
2017/03/21
   EP - Vote in committee
2016/12/14
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2016/11/10
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2016/09/15
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2016/02/23
   EP - NOICHL Maria (S&D) appointed as rapporteur in AGRI

Documents

Votes

A8-0119/2017 - Maria Noichl - Résolution #

2017/04/27 Outcome: +: 524, 0: 45, -: 37
DE IT FR ES PL RO HU PT BG BE EL NL CZ SK AT FI SE LT IE DK SI LV HR MT LU EE CY GB
Total
75
60
53
39
44
23
20
17
16
20
20
23
20
13
16
11
19
8
9
10
8
7
6
6
5
5
5
47
icon: PPE PPE
187

Ireland PPE

Abstain (1)

4

Denmark PPE

Against (1)

1
3

Luxembourg PPE

2

Estonia PPE

For (1)

1

Cyprus PPE

1
icon: S&D S&D
142

Netherlands S&D

3

Finland S&D

1

Lithuania S&D

1

Ireland S&D

For (1)

1

Slovenia S&D

For (1)

1

Latvia S&D

1

Malta S&D

3

Luxembourg S&D

For (1)

1

Estonia S&D

For (1)

1

Cyprus S&D

For (1)

1
icon: ALDE ALDE
54

Germany ALDE

For (1)

Against (1)

2

Romania ALDE

2

Portugal ALDE

1

Austria ALDE

Against (1)

1

Sweden ALDE

2

Lithuania ALDE

2

Ireland ALDE

For (1)

1

Slovenia ALDE

For (1)

1

Croatia ALDE

For (1)

1

Luxembourg ALDE

For (1)

1

Estonia ALDE

2

United Kingdom ALDE

1
icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE
47

Italy Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Hungary Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Belgium Verts/ALE

2

Netherlands Verts/ALE

2

Austria Verts/ALE

Abstain (1)

3

Finland Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Lithuania Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Denmark Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Slovenia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Latvia Verts/ALE

1

Croatia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Luxembourg Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Estonia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

United Kingdom Verts/ALE

4
icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL
44

Netherlands GUE/NGL

For (1)

3

Czechia GUE/NGL

2

Finland GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Sweden GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Ireland GUE/NGL

3

Denmark GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Cyprus GUE/NGL

2

United Kingdom GUE/NGL

1
icon: ECR ECR
57

Italy ECR

For (1)

1

Romania ECR

For (1)

1

Bulgaria ECR

1

Greece ECR

Against (1)

1

Netherlands ECR

For (1)

1

Czechia ECR

2
2

Lithuania ECR

1

Denmark ECR

For (1)

1

Latvia ECR

For (1)

1

Croatia ECR

For (1)

1

Cyprus ECR

1
icon: ENF ENF
26

Poland ENF

Against (1)

1

Romania ENF

1

Netherlands ENF

3

Austria ENF

Abstain (1)

4

United Kingdom ENF

Against (1)

1
icon: NI NI
13

Germany NI

Against (1)

Abstain (1)

2

France NI

1

Poland NI

Against (1)

1

Hungary NI

Abstain (1)

3

United Kingdom NI

Against (1)

1
icon: EFDD EFDD
35

Germany EFDD

Against (1)

1

France EFDD

1

Poland EFDD

1

Czechia EFDD

Against (1)

1

Sweden EFDD

2
AmendmentsDossier
365 2016/2141(INI)
2016/12/14 AGRI 365 amendments...
source: 595.655

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

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  • date: 2017-03-30T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2017-0119&language=EN type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A8-0119/2017 body: EP type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
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  • date: 2016-12-14T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE595.655 title: PE595.655 type: Amendments tabled in committee body: EP
  • date: 2017-09-07T00:00:00 docs: url: /oeil/spdoc.do?i=29338&j=0&l=en title: SP(2017)472 type: Commission response to text adopted in plenary
events
  • date: 2016-09-15T00:00:00 type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP
  • date: 2017-03-21T00:00:00 type: Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading body: EP
  • date: 2017-03-30T00:00:00 type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2017-0119&language=EN title: A8-0119/2017 summary: The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted an own-initiative report by Maria NOICHL (S&D, DE) on the state of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers. The report recalled that there is no exclusive or shared competence of the EU on land, as various EU policies deploy different political, social, cultural and environmental aspects of land management. This creates the need for a more holistic approach to land governance at EU level. In 2013, in the 27-member EU, only 3.1 % of farms controlled 52.2 % of farmland in Europe. By contrast, in 2013, 76.2 % of farms had the use of only 11.2 % of the agricultural land. This places inequality of land use in the EU. Too high a concentration of agricultural land splits society, destabilises rural areas, threatens food safety and thus jeopardises the environmental and social objectives of Europe. Farmland management : the report noted that there is a general shortage of comprehensive, transparent, up-to-date, high-value data standardised at European level on price and volume movements on the European land market. Member States are called upon to take better account of farmland conservation and management, and to transfers of land in their public policies. They should regularly communicate to each other information about their national legislation regarding land, land use changes and, in particular, cases involving speculative land purchases. They should also create harmonised farmland inventories in which all ownership rights, and rights of use in respect of farm land, are recorded in an up-to-date, accurate and comprehensible manner – while fully respecting the data protection rights of the parties involved – and presented in the form of anonymised, publicly accessible statistics. The Commission is called upon to: establish an observatory service for the collection of information and data on the level of farmland concentration throughout the Union; set up a high-level task force to examine the problem of farmland concentration, to conduct a study on the impact that the policy measures taken by the EU and the Member States have on land concentration and agricultural production, and to analyse the risks that land concentration poses for food supply, employment, the environment, soil quality and rural development; publish guidelines on the harmonisation of accounting practices, and to encourage the sharing of best practices in national legislations, in order to identify measures to safeguard farmland and farm activities. Financing : high investment costs hamper the acquisition and leasing of farmland and forested area for small to medium-sized family and cooperative farms. Members stressed the difficulties of accessing credit in order to acquire land or tenure, especially for new entrants and young farmers and called on the Commission to provide proper instruments, in the framework of the CAP and related policies, that facilitate their entry into farming by ensuring fair access to sustainable credit. According to Members, farmland should to be given special protection with a view to allowing the Member States, in coordination with local authorities and farmers' organisations, to regulate the sale, use and lease of agricultural land in order to ensure food security. CAP involvement : although land policy is essentially a matter for the Member States, it may be affected by the CAP, with serious impact on the competitiveness of farms on the internal market. Member States are called upon to give small and medium-sized local producers, new entrants and young farmers – while ensuring equal gender access – priority in the purchase and rental of farmland. Member stated must undertake a targeted examination of the national implementation of the existing CAP with a view to identifying any undesirable effects of the concentration of land. In this regard, they welcomed the proposal to simplify the CAP , in particular those measures aimed at reducing costs and administrative burdens for family farms, as well as for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas. They stated that, under the reformed CAP, ceilings should be introduced, and the direct payments scheme adjusted, in such a way as to give added weight to the first hectares, and that steps should be taken to facilitate investment and the disbursement of direct aid to small farms . The Commission is called on to introduce a more effective aid redistribution system in order to guard against farmland concentration.
  • date: 2017-04-26T00:00:00 type: Debate in Parliament body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20170426&type=CRE title: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 type: Results of vote in Parliament body: EP docs: url: https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=29338&l=en title: Results of vote in Parliament
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2017-0197 title: T8-0197/2017 summary: The European Parliament adopted by 524 votes to 37, with 45 abstentions, a resolution on the state of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers. Members recalled that there is no exclusive or shared competence of the EU on land, as various EU policies deploy different political, social, cultural and environmental aspects of land management. This creates the need for a more holistic approach to land governance at EU level. In 2013, in the 27-member EU, only 3.1 % of farms controlled 52.2 % of farmland in Europe. By contrast, in 2013, 76.2 % of farms had the use of only 11.2 % of the agricultural land. This unequal distribution of farmland is the counterpart of unequal distribution of CAP subsidies and runs counter to the European sustainable, multifunctional agricultural model, in which family farms are an important feature. The concentration of farmland has an adverse effect on the development of rural communities and the socio-economic viability of rural areas, and results in the loss of agricultural jobs. Farmland management : Member States are called upon, in their public policies, to take better account of farmland conservation and management, and to transfers of land. Parliament noted that there is a general shortage of comprehensive, transparent, up-to-date, high-value data standardised at European level on price and volume movements on the European land market. Member States should regularly communicate to each other information about their national legislation regarding land, land use changes and, in particular, cases involving speculative land purchases. They should also create harmonised farmland inventories in which all ownership rights are recorded in an up-to-date database and presented in the form of anonymised, publicly accessible statistics. The Commission is called upon to: establish an observatory service for the collection of information and data on the level of farmland concentration throughout the Union; set up a high-level task force to examine the problem of farmland concentration, to conduct a study on the impact that the policy measures taken by the EU and the Member States have on land concentration and agricultural production, and to analyse the risks that land concentration poses for food supply, employment, the environment, soil quality and rural development; publish guidelines on the harmonisation of accounting practices, and to encourage the sharing of best practices in national legislations, in order to identify measures to safeguard farmland and farm activities. Financing : high investment costs hamper the acquisition and leasing of farmland and forested area for small to medium-sized family and cooperative farms. Members stressed the difficulties of accessing credit in order to acquire land or tenure, especially for new entrants and young farmers and called on the Commission to provide proper instruments, in the framework of the CAP and related policies, that facilitate their entry into farming by ensuring fair access to sustainable credit. According to Members, farmland should to be given special protection with a view to allowing the Member States, in coordination with local authorities and farmers' organisations, to regulate the sale, use and lease of agricultural land in order to ensure food security. CAP involvement : although land policy is essentially a matter for the Member States, it may be affected by the CAP, with serious impact on the competitiveness of farms on the internal market. Member States are called upon to give small and medium-sized local producers, new entrants and young farmers – while ensuring equal gender access – priority in the purchase and rental of farmland. Member stated must undertake a targeted examination of the national implementation of the existing CAP with a view to identifying any undesirable effects of the concentration of land. In this regard, Members welcomed the proposal to simplify the CAP , in particular those measures aimed at reducing costs and administrative burdens for family farms, as well as for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas. They stated that, under the reformed CAP, ceilings should be introduced, and the direct payments scheme adjusted, in such a way as to give added weight to the first hectares, and that steps should be taken to facilitate investment and the disbursement of direct aid to small farms . The Commission is called on to introduce a more effective aid redistribution system in order to guard against farmland concentration. Lastly, measures to combat the concentration of agricultural land should be maintained during the development of the draft CAP for the period after 2020.
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 type: End of procedure in Parliament body: EP
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  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/agriculture-and-rural-development_en title: Agriculture and Rural Development commissioner: HOGAN Phil
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  • The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted an own-initiative report by Maria NOICHL (S&D, DE) on the state of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers.

    The report recalled that there is no exclusive or shared competence of the EU on land, as various EU policies deploy different political, social, cultural and environmental aspects of land management. This creates the need for a more holistic approach to land governance at EU level.

    In 2013, in the 27-member EU, only 3.1 % of farms controlled 52.2 % of farmland in Europe. By contrast, in 2013, 76.2 % of farms had the use of only 11.2 % of the agricultural land. This places inequality of land use in the EU.

    Too high a concentration of agricultural land splits society, destabilises rural areas, threatens food safety and thus jeopardises the environmental and social objectives of Europe.

    Farmland management: the report noted that there is a general shortage of comprehensive, transparent, up-to-date, high-value data standardised at European level on price and volume movements on the European land market.

    Member States are called upon to take better account of farmland conservation and management, and to transfers of land in their public policies. They should regularly communicate to each other information about their national legislation regarding land, land use changes and, in particular, cases involving speculative land purchases. They should also create harmonised farmland inventories in which all ownership rights, and rights of use in respect of farm land, are recorded in an up-to-date, accurate and comprehensible manner – while fully respecting the data protection rights of the parties involved – and presented in the form of anonymised, publicly accessible statistics.

    The Commission is called upon to:

    • establish an observatory service for the collection of information and data on the level of farmland concentration throughout the Union;
    • set up a high-level task force to examine the problem of farmland concentration, to conduct a study on the impact that the policy measures taken by the EU and the Member States have on land concentration and agricultural production, and to analyse the risks that land concentration poses for food supply, employment, the environment, soil quality and rural development;
    • publish guidelines on the harmonisation of accounting practices, and to encourage the sharing of best practices in national legislations, in order to identify measures to safeguard farmland and farm activities.

    Financing: high investment costs hamper the acquisition and leasing of farmland and forested area for small to medium-sized family and cooperative farms. Members stressed the difficulties of accessing credit in order to acquire land or tenure, especially for new entrants and young farmers and called on the Commission to provide proper instruments, in the framework of the CAP and related policies, that facilitate their entry into farming by ensuring fair access to sustainable credit.

    According to Members, farmland should to be given special protection with a view to allowing the Member States, in coordination with local authorities and farmers' organisations, to regulate the sale, use and lease of agricultural land in order to ensure food security.

    CAP involvement: although land policy is essentially a matter for the Member States, it may be affected by the CAP, with serious impact on the competitiveness of farms on the internal market. Member States are called upon to give small and medium-sized local producers, new entrants and young farmers – while ensuring equal gender access – priority in the purchase and rental of farmland. Member stated must undertake a targeted examination of the national implementation of the existing CAP with a view to identifying any undesirable effects of the concentration of land.

    In this regard, they welcomed the proposal to simplify the CAP, in particular those measures aimed at reducing costs and administrative burdens for family farms, as well as for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas.

    They stated that, under the reformed CAP, ceilings should be introduced, and the direct payments scheme adjusted, in such a way as to give added weight to the first hectares, and that steps should be taken to facilitate investment and the disbursement of direct aid to small farms. The Commission is called on to introduce a more effective aid redistribution system in order to guard against farmland concentration.

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    • body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: URUTCHEV Vladimir group: ECR name: KUŹMIUK Zbigniew group: ALDE name: MÜLLER Ulrike group: GUE/NGL name: SENRA RODRÍGUEZ Maria Lidia group: Verts/ALE name: HEUBUCH Maria group: EFD name: MOI Giulia responsible: True committee: AGRI date: 2016-02-23T00:00:00 committee_full: Agriculture and Rural Development rapporteur: group: S&D name: NOICHL Maria
    links
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    • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/agriculture/ title: Agriculture and Rural Development commissioner: HOGAN Phil
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    2016/2141(INI)
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    State of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers
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    3.10.01 Agricultural structures and holdings, farmers