Factors influencing land rental market participation: a case study in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Agricultural land mobility through an efficient land rental market has been shown to contribute to the productive and sustainable utilisation of land, by facilitating the transfer of land from less productive farmers to more productive farmers. However, this is not the case in Northern Ireland where the sale of agricultural land is limited with a constrained tenanted sector. The objective of this study is to analyse the factors influencing participation in the land rental market in Northern Ireland. To achieve our objective, data from 1466 farmland owners was analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) and multinomial logistic regression model. The results show that land rental market participation is impacted by motivational and socioeconomic factors. The study recommends the development of schemes that support the early and comfortable retirement of older farmers to increase the access of young farmers to land and improve the land rental market.