Legal regime of agricultural lands

General Provisions

The basis of the legal regime for agricultural lands is Chapter XIV of the Land Code of the Russian Federation.

Concept and Composition of Agricultural Lands

According to Article 77 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, agricultural lands are deemed to be lands, located outside the boundaries of a populated area and allocated for agricultural purposes, as well as intended for these purposes.

Within the composition of agricultural lands, the following are distinguished: [agricultural land use](/enc/18499/ "Definition of 'Agricultural Land Use' in the Legal Encyclopedia), [lands](/enc/9280/ "Definition of 'Lands' in the Legal Encyclopedia) occupied by internal roads, communications, forest plantations intended for protecting lands from negative impact, water bodies, as well as buildings and structures used for production, storage, and primary processing of agricultural products.

Use of agricultural land

According to Article 78 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, agricultural land may be used for conducting agricultural production, creating protective forest plantations, scientific research, educational and other purposes related to agricultural production, as well as for aquaculture (fish farming) purposes:

peasant (farmer) households for carrying out their activities, citizens engaged in personal subsidiary farming, horticulture, animal husbandry, and gardening;

business partnerships and companies, production cooperatives, state and municipal unitary enterprises, other commercial organizations;

non-commercial organizations, including consumer cooperatives, religious organizations;

Cossack societies;

experimental-production, educational, educational-experimental, and educational-production departments of scientific organizations, educational organizations engaged in training personnel in the field of agriculture, and general education organizations;

communities of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation for the preservation and development of their traditional way of life, subsistence, and crafts.

Use of agricultural land or land plots within such lands, provided for the period of construction of roads, power transmission lines, communication lines (including linear-cable structures), oil pipelines, gas pipelines and other pipelines is carried out upon availability of an approved reclamation project for these lands for agricultural purposes without conversion of agricultural land into land of other categories.

Use of agricultural land or land plots within such lands is permitted for carrying out activities in the hunting industry, unless otherwise provided by this Code.

Features of Using Agricultural Lands

According to Article 79 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, agricultural lands - arable land, meadows, pastures, fallows, lands occupied by perennial plantations (orchards, vineyards and others) - within agricultural lands have priority in use and are subject to special protection.

Highly valuable productive agricultural lands, including agricultural lands of experimental-production units of scientific organizations and educational-experimental units of higher education institutions, agricultural lands, the cadastral value of which significantly exceeds the average level of cadastral value [by](/enc/32588/ "Definition

concepts of "PO" in the legal encyclopedia") to the municipal district (urban settlement), may be included in the list of lands, use of which for other purposes is not allowed in accordance with the legislation of the subjects of the Russian Federation.

The use of land shares arising from the privatization of agricultural lands is regulated by the Federal Law "On the Circulation of Agricultural Land".

Land Redistribution Fund

According to Article 80 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, in order to redistribute land for agricultural production, to enable peasant (farmer) households to carry out their activities, expand such activities, establish and expand personal subsidiary farms, conduct horticulture, animal husbandry, vegetable growing, mowing grass for hay, grazing livestock, within the composition of lands designated for agricultural purposes a fund of land redistribution is created.

The Land Redistribution Fund is formed from the account of land plots of agricultural purpose, entering this fund in the case of the Russian Federation, a subject of the Russian Federation, or a municipal formation acquiring the right of ownership to a land plot [by](/enc/32588/ "Definition of the term 'PO' in the legal

encyclopedias") grounds established by federal laws, except in cases of acquiring the right of ownership to land plot, expropriated for state or municipal needs.

The use of land from the land redistribution fund is carried out in accordance with Article 78 of this Code, in the order established by laws and other normative legal acts of the Russian Federation.Information on the presence of land in the land redistribution fund is publicly accessible.