The evaluation of agricultural landowner inputs before and after land consolidation: The Kesik Village example

Abstract

The task of land consolidation projects is to bring scattered and degraded parcels to the appropriate parcel shape and size for agricultural management. Thus, direct access to each parcel road and irrigation system can be achieved. Thus, land operating costs are reduced in areas where land consolidation is applied. The present study aimed to determine the changes in input costs before and after land consolidation. As factors affecting input cost, land consolidation ratio, parcel shape index, size and number, transportation time to/from parcels and fuel consumption were considered. The material of the study consists of the land consolidation project area in the Kesik Village of Yeşilhisar District in Kayseri, Turkey. The total number of parcels of 30 randomly selected landowners decreased from 85 to 35 with land consolidation process. However, the average parcel size of selected landowners increased from 20.3 da to 41.5 da. After consolidation in the study area, the road length decreased by 343.5 km. With the decrease in the length of the road, there has been a decrease in the transportation fuel cost and time to the parcels. It was found that 151.14 L fuel and 163.234 USD cost were saved for the selected landowners and a 17 h and 18 min time gain.