Land use and water management challenges in Lithuanian rural areas

Lithuania has been transforming its agriculture and rural development sector during the past decade and is now close to joining the EU. This has included land reform and transformation of water management. The land restitution process will be completed soon. The average size of private agricultural land tenure is 5.7 ha. The large number of small-size agricultural holdings is an issue to be addressed in the upcoming land consolidation projects. The maintenance of large-scale drainage systems installed during the former period needs a lot of organisational and financial support. The study presents a critical analysis of the present state of land use and agricultural water management infrastructure in Lithuania. The existing opportunities are highlighted, with the emphasis on actions to be taken to explore the challenges arising. The EU pre-accession programme SAPARD that started in 2000 is already addressing some investment issues in rural areas. Unfortunately, it does not assist the required investments in drainage infrastructure and does not deal with land consolidation issues. A critical review of existing measures suggests some new actions within the framework of the coming support from EU Structural Funds. The research gives the background for the preparation of comprehensive support measures for reforming land use and assisting the water management sector to be included in the framework of the Single Programming Document which is being prepared for the use of EU structural funds for the period of 2004-2006 after the accession of Lithuania to the EUVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij