Landwirtschaftliche Grenzstandorte in den neuen Bundesländern

Due to the natural conditions and future economic framework for agriculture in the new Länder, it seems questionable whether farming in the traditional manner can be maintained everywhere. The actual locations of marginal land where land hitherto used for farming may fall idle in the future depend upon numerous factors and cannot easily be predicted. Land rents may give an answer to this question as an indicator which takes into account a whole range of influencing factors. However, considering the uncertainties concerning the fixed-cost structure of agricultural enterprises in Eastern Germany, only gross margins computed for arable farming along with a few other indicators can be used for the assessment of marginal locations. It is not possible to exactly determine the borderline between regions of profitable and of unprofitable arable farming. A comparison of various maps, however, gives a rough overview of the quality of agricultural locations in the administrative districts of the new Länder.