The relationship between agricultural land parcel size and cultivation costs

Abstract

Land fragmentation in agriculture is acknowledged as a problem that causes additional costs in cultivation and lowers productivity. Land consolidation programmes seek to alleviate the problem by influencing land ownership, with the aim to reduce travel distances and increase parcel sizes by connecting adjacent small land parcels. Decision making requires cost–benefit analysis of the costs of ownership changes compared to the potential benefits. Such analysis is based on before and after assessment, where the benefits of a larger parcel size and the costs caused by the distances travelled between land parcels and between parcels are the key determinants. This paper presents a method to analyse realized work efficiency at different parcels. The benefit from a larger parcel size appears to be greater than that reported in previous studies.