Agrarian reform III: denationalisation

After the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Latvian agricultural scientists visit a seminar in Germany where they learn about biodynamic agriculture. A group of about thirty farmers begin experimenting in combining ancestral knowledge with biodynamic principles (Hānbergs 2009). 

Most farms started small, with one cow and two pigs. In 1995, the first organic farmers received biodynamic certification through organization “Demeter International” in Germany before but now the Latvian Organic Farming Association is founded. The association is organised as a professional association with approximately 1400 members nowadays.

Right after restoration of independence in May 1990 denationalisation of the land started. Families were eligible to claim land their ancestors had lost during forced collectivisation under the Soviet regime. Land reform, instituted after 1991 by the new independent state of Latvia, restituted land to pre-1940 landowners or their ancestors as an attempt to restore both temporal and geographic “normality” and correct the “historical error” of the Soviet past (Eglitis 2002). Yet the path to normality was not as easy as many had hoped. First, while the new land reform created an entirely new category of farmers as independent landowners, they lacked many other assets necessary to enter new capitalist markets. In 1999 there were 101,200 farms, with an average size 13.6 ha of land, and 7.6 ha of forests (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Latvia 2003). Second, as opposed to receiving state support for agriculture, as in the first independence period, land restitution was soon followed by the beginning of agricultural liberalization. The government switched from hailing small farms as the saviours of the nation to seeing them as a threat to the liberalization of agricultural markets. This meant that many farmers who had recently regained land found they could not make a living from it. Agriculture’s share of GDP fell from 21 percent in 1991 to under 3 percent in 1999, while still employing 17 percent of the population. 

Other reforms took longer than it was initially supposed. For example, Territorial administrative reform took ten years to accomplish. Its main objective was transition from Soviet two-level to one-level administration. As a result, total of 119 administrative districts were formed. Resulting image of Latvian territory resembles the medieval division of land, with very heterogeneous nature and over exaggerated number of administrative units. 

In 2004, Latvia joined European Union among other Eastern European countries. Return to Europe, from which many felt it had been severed through the Soviet occupation of 1945-91, was a long-awaited and heavily romanticised dream (Eglitis 2002). Joining in European Union and NATO as part of the construction of a market economy and struggle for international presence. Latvia was ranked as the poorest region of the EU-25 member states. Unfortunately EU accession is associated with intensive outmigration of Latvia’s rural population.  Due to higher wages in other EU countries, including Ireland, Britain, and Spain, which opened their borders to workers from new eastern EU member states, many Latvians had left for the search for better lives. 

In 2008, The global financial crisis struck. Latvia sought a 7,5 EUR IMF rescue and was forced to undergo a brutal internal devaluation, lowering prices and wages. In 2009 its economy shrank 18 per cent, one of the largest contractions ever seen in peacetime. The global financial crisis has further exacerbated out migration from rural regions of Latvia.

In Latvia, there are many family gardens, and farmers create their seed collections, popularise and are willing to grow for their own consumption. On February 27, 2012 the tomato rebellion of gardeners surprised nearly everyone, given the usual 'quiet sustainability' of Latvia's gardeners and small farmers. Farmers and activists protested the implementation of EU seed laws as a string of nested rural injustices across multiple scales: lack of recognition of gardeners' and farmers' knowledge about seeds and agrobiodiversity; impingement on farmers' right to save, exchange, and sell seeds and decide what to grow; limitation of citizens' and movements' participation in decision making; and restriction of the nation's sovereignty to make its own laws within the confines of the EU. The case was supported by a European network of seed savers' and farmers' groups, whose members signed a letter of support that was sent to the Latvian minister of agriculture on the day of the farm's hearing. 

In 2012, The Baltic ministers of agriculture and main agricultural organisations waged a campaign in Brussels urging for a more equitable distribution of EU payments through reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Meanwhile western European farmers are buying cheap farmland in Latvia. They use intensive farming techniques and ship the food back to the West. A new wave of agricultural intensification began after EU accession, often at the hands of investors and other western EU countries, who buy cheap farmland and create large scale export operations (Dzenovska 2011) . These farmers are from families who are farmers in many generations, coming from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany etc. There is no agricultural land available in the countries where they are coming from, so the sons of these families acquire land in Latvia.   

Although since the accession of the EU revenues from agriculture increased by 20 percent, there is constant negative trend in population growth in rural areas. Ongoing territorial reform aimed at significantly reducing the numbers of districts. The aim of the reform is to ensure better services (state, municipal) to the residents of Latvia. The core of the reform is amalgamation of many rural districts into one and reducing the number of local centers. This is especially topical in the rural areas, where the number of residents is decreasing steadily, and existing social infrastructure (schools, hospitals etc) is too costly to function. 

In 2004, Latvia had almost 17.000 hectares of certified organic arable land cultivated by 350 farmers, or 1% of arable land in Latvia. Since 2006, there is a steady increase in the organic land area (10 to 15 % each year), whereas the number of farmers remains stable (around 3 500). In Latvia, organic land area has exploded to 283,000 hectares, cultivated by nearly 4180 farmers (PVD, LDC, LAD) 2018). Latvia has 12 % of its arable land managed organically, the fifth highest percentage of certified organic land area in the European Union (still predominantly extensively managed grasslands) (EUROSTAT). In 2018, there were totally 470,000 hectares of organic land, out of which there were 283,000 hectares of agricultural land.

Half of organic farms in Latvia, staff comprised by the owners and their family members, around thirty percent—family members and employees, 10 %—paid workers only. In Latvia, there is the highest share of women farm managers—42 %, in European Union it is only 24 %. 

Although the european and national support isn't proportionally growing with the size of the biological agricultural plots, still there was an increase in farms in 2018. At the moment we have 4180 certified farms with a total area of 283 000 ha supported by 28 million Eur. There is no spectacular growth in the amount of farms in the last few years but more and more of their land is transformed into biological agriculture land. 

In 2014, Latvian Association of Organic Farmers launched the campaign “BioLoģiski” to promote organic food. Campaign lasted for two years. The main goal of the campaign was to make organic food distinguishable and to explain to consumers the benefits of organic nutrition. While the campaign was active, the sales of organic food products increased, while after the campaign was finished sales decreased.

National strategy for development emphasizes organic farming, coupled with rural ecotourism as a way to preserve nature capital and diversify the economy in rural areas. Looking forward, organic farming has two main paths to develop in the future. First is an achievement of better production results, second—development of smallholder farms. For the former goal, development of processing facilities is necessary. For the latter, government support is needed. 

Strategy of organic farming industry envisions growth of organic agricultural land up to 30 percent of all agricultural land in the year 2030. The Ministry of Agriculture of Latvia emphasizes the significance of learning and education in order to ensure development of organic farming. Many organic farmers have knowledge of agriculture, but lack knowledge of marketing, how to sell their produce. Also knowledge on collaboration is necessary, therefore a leadership programme was offered. Furthermore, in order to obtain and keep organic farming certificate, farmers have to attain 160 hour long seminar on the basics of organic farming.

Latvia’s organic farms mostly have multi-branch production, and it depends on the type of farming. It is necessary to develop production systems, which are more environment-friendly and use local resources more efficiently as well as are less dependent on artificial, industrial inputs.