Surveying the Regional Need for Land Consolidations from GIS information in Finland

Finnish agricultural landscape has experienced fragmentation due to long-lasting structural change as well as historical reasons. Land consolidation projects have been completed since 1750s. The aim of this study was to quantify how the Finnish agricultural parcel structure has changed between 2010–2020. Spatial analysis methods were utilized over two datasets of all agricultural parcels in Finland. Individual parcels were considered, as well as larger parcels that combined the adjacent holdings of a single farmer. Average parcel size increased by 5 %. There was no significant difference in the growth rate between individual parcels and the combined holdings. Average distance from the homestead to the parcel has increased by 19 %. In land consolidation areas have been the parcel size increased on average by 27 %, while the average distance grew only by 11 %. Around 37 % of fields were under lease in 2020. The average size of Finnish agricultural parcels is slowly growing, but the growing distance to parcels fragmentates the structure further. Rental markets do not seem to offer much flexibility in increasing parcel size. Land consolidation appears to be effective in combating fragmentation. Materials created can be used in land consolidation planning and execution in the National Land Survey of Finland