Prof. Wojciech Wilkowski - Poland
Dr Katarzyna Sobolewska - Mikulska - Poland
ABSTRACT
Problems related to land management and transformation of physical structure of rural areas are closely connected with the state agricultural policy. At present this policy aims at creation of the integrated agricultural production, what corresponds to general directions obligatory in the European Union countries.
The paper presents the basic principles of maintenance of land consolidation works in Poland which are performed to enable the implementation of requirements of the integrated agricultural production.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Probleme der Bodenbewirtschaftunbg und der rä umlichen Gestaltung lä ndlicher Gebiete sind mit der Agrarpolitik der Regierung eng verflochten. Gegenwä rting zielt diese Politik auf die Errichtung eines Systems integrierter Landwirtschaftproduktion hin, was mit den allgemeinen Richtlinien der EU ü bereinstimmt.
Im Beitrag sind die in Polen obligatorischen Grundsä tze fü r Flurordnungsmassnahmen dargelegt worden. Es ist ersichtlich, dass siê der Realisierung des Systems integrierter Landwirtschaftsproduktion dienen.
RÉSUMÉ
Les problé mes d’amé ngement foncier et de transformation de la structure agraire des espaces ruraux sont strictement lié s á la politique rurale de l’Etat. En ce moment cette politique se dirige dite integrale, ce qui est en conformité avec des directions gé né rales de l’Union Europé enne.
Dans l’exposé on a pré senté des ré gles principales de la ré alisation des travaux du remenbrement rural en Pologne agin que l’on puisse ré aliser les demandes du systé me de la production agraire integrale.
INTRODUCTION
Problems related to land management and transformation of physical structure of rural areas are closely connected with the state agricultural policy. Poland, in its aspirations to integration with the European Union must consider these problems in the context of the agricultural policy of this organisation. At present the agricultural policy of the European Union aims at creation of the system of an integrated agricultural production - the Integrated Arable Farming System in the Netherlands or the Crop Management in the UK.
The integrated production may be specified as „the system of management which combines economic principles with ecological security by improvement of management, reasonable utilisation of self-regulating mechanisms of eco-systems and systematic implementation of the results of scientific and technical progress" [Majewski, 1993].
The system of objectives of the integrated production includes:
The system of integrated agricultural production is placed between the conventional and ecological agriculture. The basic assumption of the system which is adjusted to specific features of regions and single farms is formed by the expert in management of arable lands, in the process of transforming the physical structure. Two groups of activity are distinguished within the ecological infrastructure:
In Poland the idea of the integrated agricultural production has not been fully formed and it has not been the uniform, fully defined system. This concept has been continuously developed and verified and the ready model does not exist.
Within the transformation of physical structure of rural areas, the designer who is also the expert in management of rural areas, who implements the land consolidation project which should consider the requirements of integrated agricultural production, must also realise the existence of mechanisms and relationships between production, ecology and landscape, which occur within the agricultural system.
Land consolidation activities performed at present should consider the philosophy of policy of development of rural areas in Poland, which consists of:
The necessity of intensification of land consolidation works in Poland results from the following factors:
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE OF FARMS
During transformation of the physical structure of rural areas in Poland the importance of the agricultural sector in economy should be considered. This sector is characterised by 15% of participation on creation of the national income, with 28% of employment and approximately 6% of participation in investments. These data are the evidence of high diversification of economic efficiency, effectiveness and the intensity of implementation of progress.
This results from the fact that the Polish agriculture has the extremely disadvantageous area structure of farms and is characterised by highly diversified and scattered agricultural production space and the soil conditions which are the most difficult in Europe. The area of arable lands equals to about 60% of the total area of the country. The dominating position is occupied by individual farms, which were utilising more than 80% of the total area of the arable lands in Poland.
At present about 2 million individual farms exist in Poland, and their number systematically decreases. The average size of a farm increased in 1996 by 0.7 hectares and equals to 8.3 hectares (according to data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Management).
The regional structure of farms is highly diversified. Almost 1.1 million farms, i.e. about 55% of the total number of farms, do not exceed the area of 5 hectares. The most inconvenient area structure of farms exist in 18 voivodships of the South-Eastern region.
The next feature of the Polish agriculture which is also very inconvenient is excessive scattering and poor runner of plots in a farm. Within rural areas of the area of 29.2 million hectares about 24 million plots exist, what results in the average area of a plot of 1.22 hectare.
As a result of such scattering, grounds of individual farms are located in several, or more than ten plots, apart from the settlement and hardened accessible roads to the fields.
The next factor which makes the management very difficult are poor soil conditions. Only 26% of arable lands falls within the structure of land use of the highest production potential. More than 56% of arable lands in Poland are soils created of sands which are characterised by low usefulness for agricultural production. The characteristic feature of soils is the so called mosaicking, i.e. occurrence of soils in particular complexes of arable lands which are classified into different classes.
The inconvenient structure quality structure of arable lands is the reason that the average production potential of 1 hectare of arable lands is lower by approximately 40% than the average production potential of arable lands in the Western European countries.
The important factor which influences the formation of agricultural structure is the demographic situation of farms. Almost 20% of individuals working in agriculture are the individuals of post-production age.
The structural and demographic conditions of the Polish agriculture, and in particular it area structure, should be met by limitation of the total number of farms and increase of their average area.
It is assumed that within the perspective of several years, the group of 600 - 700 thousand of family, developmental farms, should be formed.
The transition into the so called ecological agriculture is the chance for many farms. Present results of experiments performed in the Western Europe are the evidence that the inputs of manpower in such farms are much higher. Thus it is one of the methods of fighting against unemployment.
CONSTRUCTION OF MOTOR WAYS AND EXPRESS WAYS
At the present economic situation of Poland construction of motor ways became the necessity. It is foreseen that in the first decade of the 21st century approximately 2,600 km of motor ways will be constructed. Performance of the programme of construction of motor ways will lead to significant transformations within the structure of rural areas as well as to changes within the natural environment. This will result in accumulation of processes related to the management of rural areas and connected with the construction of motor ways. These problems are considered as very significant due to:
As a result the motor way will divide thousand of parcels and will separate them from the economic centre, which is the settlement. This will result in deterioration of conditions of agricultural management and will make the implementation of investments accompanying the construction of motor ways as necessary. Due to this situation, in parallel to construction of motor ways, performance of land consolidation and exchange of lands are foreseen, aiming not only at minimising the negative influence of motor ways on the agricultural and production space of rural areas, but also on its transformation, in order to improve the conditions of management with respect to the conditions existing before the commencement of construction of motor ways. Similar problems should be solved in connection with designing of railway connections.
ECOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE IN DESIGNING OF LAND CONSOLIDATION ACTIVITY
Specification of ecological hazards, the sources of which are - among others - the processes mentioned above, is one of the elements of elaboration of the optimum design of transformation of spatial structure of rural areas during the process of land consolidation. Quality of soil classes, water, terrain relief, landscape and the air are elements of the natural environment which mostly determine the demands of such transformations.
The design of land consolidation should cover the wide scope of land transformation in order to create such structure of lands which could result in possibilities of better results of management and in improvement of natural conditions of the given area. Such transformations will, in particular, concern the following groups of lands types:
Importance of aforestation is determined by its functions. Functions of aforestation may be divided into protective, productive and social-and-cultural. The protective functions are the most important ones; they are often called the ecological or biological functions. Depending on the elements of landscape, for which the influence of aforestation is considered, protective functions of aforestation are divided into:
The characteristic feature of aforestation is simultaneous playing of many diversified functions. Besides, aforestation of the similar form may play different ecological roles in various landscapes. Aforestation of various forms, including orchards and parks, creates, in common with forests, the high green systems, which considerable increse the so called the roughness of the terrain.
Increase of the level of aforestation of the landscape and introduction of belts of trees, located perpendicularly to the directions of slops, influence the limitation of surface outflow and thus results in increase of the level of closing of the water circulation cycle.
The chains of trees located within the agricultural space limit the superficial outflow, what also limits the intensity of erosion processes and washing away toxic substances from fields (as for example pesticides) or fertilisers which are the reason of unnecessary increase of amendment (eutrophication) of open waters.
Aforested areas also contribute to improvement of air cleanness, since they operate as filters of air pollution caused by low sources, including combustion gases from cars; they also stop and neutralise dusts which are distributed by high chimneys.
Aforested areas diversify the environment by creation of various, spatial and functional biological niches, what allows to diversify species of occurring plants and animals. They are the so called biocenotic functions of forests.
The above mentioned protective functions of trees are the reason that they may be considered as extremely efficient "environmental buffers", i.e. the elements which support the stability of the landscape.
Since the most important functions for the maintenance of biological balance of the landscape is played not by single aforested areas, but their systems combined with forests, design and implementation of aforeststaion should be performed in close relation to the complex of physical management of rural areas.
The general design of land consolidation should consider the necessity of performing the anti-erosion activities and phyto-drainage works, designing of an appropriate system of fields, with the utilisation of a rule of alternation of arable lands and green areas and separation of areas which are adjacent to natural and artificial water streams, which would aim at protection of surface waters. The width of such zones, as well as the recommended type of vegetation, depends on the type of soils and geological conditions, the degree of slope and possibility of excluding of such areas from the agricultural production. For the simplest cases, the buffer zones may be the green areas used as extensive meadows or pastures. Significant role in purification of waters (which for example originate from drainage systems) may be played by all small and shallow water reservoirs, acting as bio-filters.
In order to protect streams against the inflow of pollution from fields, the belts of soils of the width 2.5 - 5.0 meters should be foreseen in land consolidation design as excluded from the agricultural production.
DESIGNING BORDERS OF COMPLEXES AND PLOTS WITH CONSIDERATION OF REQUIREMENTS OF ECOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE
Agricultural, managerial activities, and in particular land consolidation, may radically modify the image of rural areas. Studies on the area of consolidation works may not neglect elements of landscape architecture and the knowledge of natural laws. Therefore, distinguishing of complexes and plots, their shapes and size may not be influenced only by economical aspects and the necessity of improvement of expansion of farms; the needs of management of the landscape should also be considered during designing works.
The following elements may be used during preparation of the design of division of lands with respect to various needs:
Thus the border line - during the stage of designing works - may be considered as an instrument of active protection of elements of the rural landscape, due to the possibility of introduction of new borders of plots which contains valuable economical and landscape elements.
The number of existing border lines depends on the possibility to design large plots for specific circumstances. It also depends on the number and size of farms to be consolidated. The number of plots is limited by natural conditions. The existing field situation, as the location of land use types, quality of soils, intersections with roads, influence the design ideas and solutions.
Considering economical aspects of land consolidation works, the number of plots belonging to one farm should be minimised. Ecological conditions remain in conflict with this rule. In order to reconcile ecological and economic aspects the size and number of plots in the landscape should be optimised during the process of design works. Due to ecological aspects, optimum size and number of plots have not been determined. Their specification becomes a very complicated problem since it depends on the great number of factors. Each rural district is diversified with respect top ecological features and even when these districts are considered as similar, it is unreasonable to create one, single model.
In fact we do have various natural elements and numerous possibilities to increase ecological and landscape values. It is obvious that the assumption - the higher ecological value the higher landscape value - may be also assumed.
The landscape characteristics of occurrence of border lines is connected with their aesthetic and scenic values. Often single trees and bushes exist on old balks, piles of stones and numerous species of plants occur. Such elements are often the elements of physical orientation within the landscape.
Location of a border line is influenced by many factors; borders delineate shapes and areas of plots, which, in general, should be located perpendicularly or in parallel to assumed lines. These limitations are the reasons that border lines do not distinguish areas which are ecologically homogenous and separated plots have diversified production possibilities. Ecological circumstances suggest that a balk should separate fields of various soil and moisture conditions, fields characterised by various difficulties of cultivation and that particular plots should have homogenous settlement values. Elements of the landscape through which border lines are proposed to pass, are single trees, bushes, big stones and erratic blocks, rocks, small water reservoirs which may be neglected with respect to cadastral issues, marshes, hedges etc. These elements should be located at shorter sides of new plots, what allows to minimise economic loss, resulting from the existing of non-productive areas. [R.Cymerman, J.Koc,1992].
The direction of borders of plots is not significantly important from the landscape point of view. It is imposed by terrain conditions. In the case of diversified terrain relief these borders should be located along contour lines and they may be located arbitrarily in the case of lowlands.
The conflict concerning the shape of borders, may be visible when the economical and ecological aspects of location of borders are considered. Economical factors make to design the straight borders, what is in conflict with ecological aspects. Curved borders are of higher values with respect to the landscape [R.Cymerman, J.Falkowski, A.Hopfer, 1992]
The wide range of problems results from the above considerations; these problems should be investigated during delineation of complexes and plots within rural areas, in order to reconcile ecological, economic and landscape problems.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Contemporary consolidation works may not be limited to elimination of large number of parcels in farms, but they should become a part of the design, which aims at transformation of the spatial structure of rural areas with respect to the requirements of the integrated agricultural production.
Contemporary consolidation of land aims at creation of such farms which will be characterised by the long-term economic balance, high quality of production and ecological security.
The surveyor, designing the farms meeting the above requirements within the land consolidation process, should equally consider the problems related to production efficiency as well as spatial systems and preservation of the natural environment. The designer should foresee lands playing the following functions within the restructured areas:
REFERENCES