The UN's Agriculture and Food Organisation (FAO) has pressed for a precedent international stance against land speculation, which has grown to worldwide proportions, at its latest session held at the Ministry of Rural Development, at which representatives of the Ministry's relative professional departments and background organisations took part, together with the directors of agrarian universities and research institutes.

One of the UN's most respected and long-standing organisations has compiled Voluntary Guidelines that also expand on the issue of land ownership. The document should be adopted in the first half of 2012.

Demand for agricultural land has increased dramatically worldwide as a side effect of the global food crisis of previous years. According to the FAO, an increasing number of States and private investors are purchasing farmland – mainly in developing countries – either to increase the security of their own, national food supply, or as a speculative investment.

According to some sources, 227 million hectares of farmland were sold or leased globally between 2001 and 2011, primarily to foreign investors. Such strategic or speculative, large-scale land purchasing can often lead to serious social problems and provisioning issues (forced eviction, unemployment, starvation).

In 2011, global professional and intergovernmental discussions began with the goal of curbing large-scale land purchasing, and at the same time to facilitate responsible land policy and management in the countries affected. The FAO is playing a leading role in this series of consultations. The adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forest in the Context of National Food Security would mean a precedent international stance in a debate that is loaded with conflicts of national and economic policy. Adoption of the policy my member states is planned to take place within the first half of 2012.

In Hungary, the National Land Fund Management Organization (NFA) supervises the ownership of farmland. For this reason, action against speculative land investment is one of the key roles of the NFA. Thanks to the land purchase moratorium in effect at present, foreign individuals and businesses are unable to purchase Hungarian farmland. However, this ban will expire on May 1, 2014, so it is most important that by that time the new Land Act should provide a suitable legal framework to ensure that farmland, as a resource of strategic importance, remains in the property of the nation.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)