Forty years later: Assessment of the long-lasting effectiveness of land consolidation projects

The high cost of implementing land consolidation projects (LCPs) justifies investigation of the question about the duration of economic effects of farmland merging. The assessment of economic effectiveness of LCP can be an essential argument in budgeting proceedings and in discussion of the importance of land relocation in the sustainable development of rural areas. The main aim of this research was to verify the hypothesis of persistence of favourable basic parameters of land fragmentation (LF) and other factors. affecting the efficiency of agricultural production that are still observed even several decades after LC. The aim was also to confirm that the parameters of LF within merged area are still much more favourable than those in neighbouring areas that have never been subjected to LC. The additional goal was to determine the scale and intensity of changes in LF that took place after farmland merging, and to estimate the influence of LC to farmland abandonment by analysing the intensity of secondary forest succession. The research was focused on the Jablonka commune located in the southern Poland. The results demonstrated the long-lasting effects of farmland merging, which are still evident even 40 years after the project has been completed. This is the most evident regarding the average plot size, road accessibility and land fragmentation indicators, which are calculated based on the area of the land parcel. Additionally, within the merged village the lowest level of land abandonment was observed, which was indicated by analysis of the areas covered by secondary forest succession and afforestation processes within formerly agriculturally areas. The results clearly indicated a multi-generational and positive impact of LCP on the development and functioning of rural areas.