Selected problems of farmland valuation and setting rents for its lease

Farmland is a specific economic good of almost fundamental importance for the current societies and their development and prosperity perspectives. It underlies the traditional agricultural activity and this process will continue in the foreseeable future, but in the conditions of incessantly growing number of people on Earth, most of which still experiencing various quantitative and qualitative food shortages. Their basic needs will be satisfied in the conditions of progressing climate change, water problems and shrinking land acreage suitable for agricultural use. The above circumstances highlight the second aspect of farmland, i.e. its role as the source of diverse ecosystem and agri-environmental services provision. The fact that land meets many functions at the same time poses a serious challenge for land valuation. Precision in this field largely predetermines the amount of rents for the factor of production. In this context the key aim of the paper is to present the evolution of formal concepts and empirical models used to determine farmland value and rents for the possibility to benefit from its use.