The impact of differences in land fragmentation parameters on the planning, implementation, and evaluation of land consolidation projects. Case studies of Turkey and Poland

Land fragmentation is one of the key factors of agricultural production profitability. One way to objectively assess the phenomenon is to represent it as several specific land fragmentation indices. Nevertheless, similar land fragmentation index values can be interpreted differently in different farming conditions in various countries. How these indices are calculated depends directly on the format of input data, usually based on cadastral data. The present research on eight villages in Turkey and Poland was an attempt to determine the impact of the identified differences, including different ways cadastral data are organised, on the method of calculating land fragmentation indices and results of the calculations. The authors have demonstrated the fundamental importance of the method of including holding shares in parcel ownership titles in the calculations. Spatial distribution of farm buildings turned out to have a significant impact as well. The differences identified for the villages in both the investigated countries influence the primary objectives of land consolidation projects and should be decisive for key aspects when evaluating such projects.