ECONOMIC THEORY OF LAND, LAND USE AND LAND MARKET, PROBLEMS AND POLICIES OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN ALBANIA

Land has been incorporated in economic theories in various ways and its role is surveyed, both from a conceptual and historical perspective. Originally, land used by agriculture was the main motivation for an economic treatment of land. This was gradually extended with various other land use categories. Attention for environmental and resource problems has stimulated new perspectives on land and conceptualizations of it in economic analysis. The paper will focus only on the area of agricultural land that in Albania occupies about 24% of the total land area. Planning policies for land use have their specificity and conditioned by the type of ownership over it. The problems that land reform is currently facing, are related with resolution of identified conflicts about land ownership, which extending geography is concentrated more on the suburb of large urban centers, in the coastal zone, also. The land distribution process created a large number of farms, but with limited area. Soil fertility, distance from the village, distance from the road, irrigation facilities, were some of the criteria taken into consideration during the process of land distribution. In 1991 the agricultural land has resulted in 100% state owned. Land privatization brought a lot of changes in its mode of administration and represents the most radical reform in the transformation of the right of ownership, the state-owned land to private land, marks a major achievement for the Albanian economy. In the conditions of our country, the development of the land market, especially the sale and purchase of agricultural land as a component of the whole market economy, gets a special significance. But, in addition to positivity in the development and dynamics of this market in our country, there are some obstacles and difficulties of socio-economic and institutional character. As above, focusing on agricultural land, the purpose of the study is to treat its sustainable management as a main component of sustainable agricultural development; consolidation of the rights on ownership of agricultural land through the verification of the mode of giving the property titles given throughout the period of land privatization; improving land management policies in line with the types of ownership, mode and more effective models for land consolidation and expansion of farm size for protection of agricultural land damage caused by natural and human factors; the current policies of the state on the land market, the effectiveness of their implementation, as well as recommendations for possible and perspective improvements on economic policy related to the land market in Albania.