Experts have accumulated a lot of materialabout the advantages and risks of lifting the moratorium on purchase or sale of agricultural land. The benefits for Ukraine’s economy and citizens from such step are so obvious that currently experts are debating rather about a specific model of opening the market for purchase and sale of agricultural land(in particular, when and on what preconditions such market is to be launched), but not about whether Ukraine in general needs such market or not. However, during the parliamentary hearings on “The regulation of agricultural land turnover: in search of a Ukrainian model” in December not many participants advocated an agricultural land market: part of politicians continued focusing on the risks and ignoring the benefits, traditionally appealing to “anti-moratorium” sentiments among citizens and employing populist rhetoric.

The parliamentary hearings on the topic: “The regulation of agricultural land turnover: in search of a Ukrainian model”, held on December 21, once again showed that land reform in Ukraine (as in previous two decades) has been hindered by politicians’ populism and low awareness among citizens about the possibilities that a land market can provide to them personally.