Agricultural land reform in Moldova

During transition, Moldova has pursued a policy of small-scale land privati siation and a sucession of decollectivisation initiatives. Small-scale land reform has been important for bolstering the real incomes of rural househo lds but living standards have continued to fall. While initial political re sistance to decollectivisation has been overcome, serious challenges remain for co-ordinating agricultural production, procurement and marketing from a newly fragmented structure of land ownership. The delay in issuing formal land titles has inhibited the development of land market. The former large -scale collective and state farms provided several key social services in r ural areas and the delivery of these services in the post-collectivised era also represents a serious challenge. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.