Auswirkungen überregional aktiver Investoren in der Landwirtschaft auf ländliche Räume : Ergebnisse aus zwei Fallstudien

This report summarises results of the research project “Impacts of transregionally active investors in agriculture on rural areas”. Therein, a case study methodology was developed for analysing the implications of these investors on the farms taken over, on rural economy and employment, and on environment and quality of life in the affected communities. This approach has been tested and refined in two East German regions. In the result sections, agriholdings are introduced as key units of decision-making, and different types of agriholdings are described. Reasons for the emergence of agriholdings are identified, as well as motives for selling agricultural businesses in the case study regions. In order to analyse the effects of transregionally active investors on farmland ownership and land management we establish a regional “consolidated agrarian structure”, which differs considerably from official agricultural statistics. We were unable to identify measurable impacts of farm takeovers on local employment or tax revenues. In the surveyed period, the structural change in agriculture is already too far advanced. Thus, the agricultural sector did contribute little to stabilization of the rural economy in the last decade. In general, the emergence of agriholdings is reinforcing the growing distance between agricultural holdings and the rural population.