EN
The 1990s were the period of rapid ownership transformations in agriculture of the former communist countries. A specific feature of these transformations was the fact they generally constituted the process of restitution of private farming, which can be seen as an example of mass social engineering in rural areas. Ownership transformations constituted a serious challenge since the to-date owners or their legal successor practically lost during their work for socialized entities the ability to operate independently. Due to the differences in agricultural policy pursued in the individual post-communist countries, the adoption of varying institutional solutions and differences in internal conditions the pace of ownership transformations was faster or slower but it led in all these countries to an essential limitation of the state's share in the sector of agriculture and to the recreation of private property in that sector. Assumptions relating to the privatisation of arable land have not been fully implemented. A part of that land still constitutes the property of the state treasury and is used by state farms and co-operatives or is being leased to private farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs. It should be noted that the architects of programmes envisaging agrarian reforms have generally overestimated the market's demand for arable land and the society's susceptibility to reformatory initiatives of the authorities.