The Danish government has launched a pilot scheme for multifunctional land consolidation and 20 million EURO has been allocated to this task in 2020-2021. The Danish Agricultural Agency expect that a total of 6-7,000 hectares of land can be distributed under this scheme.

The purpose of a multifunctional project is to consider several different tasks at the same time, for example, nature, environment, climate, open-air life and rural development, while at the same time allowing the farmers a better farmland allocation. Multifunctional consolidation is the farmers opportunity to be part of a larger local project that benefits both the farmer and the local area. The Danish Agricultural Agency carries out and covers the costs of the land consolidation/land swop. See a short Danish video here about land consolidation and the Danish fact sheet (PDF).

The local municipality or/and the Nature Agency can make the application to the The danish Agricultural Agency to implement a multifunctional land consolidation. To be considered, there must be at least one EU directive implementing environmental measures of national interest in the pilot area before it is possible for the farmers in the area to get funding for a multifunctional project (marked with a star)

National interests that can be part of a multifunctional project:

• Protection of the aquatic environment  (wetlands)*

• Outdoor activities
• Rural development
• Arrangement of agricultural land

SEGES support the pilot scheme in 2020-2021 with the project Land consolidation – Denmark’s largest puzzle funded by Promilleafgifsfonden for agriculture (based on pesticide taxes which are returned to projects in agriculture). In sping 2020 SEGES together with the danish advisory service (DLBR) has established 5 pilots all around in Denmark. It is important to secure a bottom up process where the farmers union, farmers and the local municipality work together as a first step in the pilot. Are the landowners really interested in initiating a new project? Important to know before you are going to submitting an application.

Five advisory companies and SEGES are now starting to find models for how the multifunctional land consolidation best can take place. The goal is to create good solutions for the farmer’s economy and production, as well as climate, biodiversity and the environment. A team from SEGES will try to support all aspects, project management, bottom up and involvement of all farmers and stakeholders, GIS-systems, economy, law ect. The multifunctional project contains all the elements Waterdrive are working with:

1. has politically allocated money for land consolidation

• Screening tools – is the pilot area eligible?
• Bottom up process. SEGES support the advisory service DLBR in relation to the farmers union and the landowners.
• Cross-sector cooperation and cooperation platforms. Landowners, the Municipality, farmes union, supply companies, the advisory service, Nature Agency, SEGES ect. Everyone must cooperate if we want to accomplish this task.
• Implementation. Land distributors complete the task when everyone agrees on the goals. In daily speech among farmers, these employees are callede people from the “Tønder Office”. They are people you can trust.

A challenging task for all actors and stakeholders. SEGES do not have all the solutions at moment, but we are together going to find them in cooperation with all the stakeholders.

Example of screening map in multifunctional land consolidation project. By Sebastian Piet Zacho, SEGES

Brown borders=organic soils for rewetting, Red=protection of drinking water, Green=Nature 2000

Here is the Link to Subsidy for multifunctional Land consolidation and the guideline (in Danish)

Frank Bondgaard, Danish Agriculture & Food Council F.m.b.A., SEGES