Accounting for Agricultural Land in Ukraine: History of Genesis and Development

The emergence of private land ownership in independent Ukraine certainly updated the issues of accounting for land plots, which in the Soviet period were state property and were provided to enterprises only for use. The purpose of the article is to disclose the genesis of accounting for agricultural land in Ukraine, to identify and systematize the features of its development. This will allow to predict how accounting for agricultural land will evolve in terms of a free land market in Ukraine. The economic and legal prerequisites for the development of accounting for land in Ukraine were considered. It was revealed that under the conditions of a moratorium on the sale of agricultural land, the accounting for land plots of agricultural purpose developed in a completely different way than the accounting for land plots of other categories. The analysis of Ukrainian dissertations devoted to solving the problems of accounting for agricultural land was carried out. The development ways of the methodology for accounting for agricultural land use were systematized. It was proved that there is a gap between the theory and practice of accounting for agricultural land in Ukraine. Among the main reasons for this situation: 1) The narrowness of scientific research within the framework of legal norms, in other words researchers did not take into account the nature of the land as a special asset, information requests of management practice, but tried to adjust their proposals to existing legal norms and did not proved the need to change such norms. 2) The lack of real interaction between science and bodies of methodological influence, which ensure the formation and implementation of state policies in accounting sphere (for example, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine). 3) The interests of entities of global economy have a greater influence on the construction of accounting methodology than the interests of entities of local economy. Based on the study results, the authors came to the conclusion that after the introduction of the free land market, attention to accounting for agricultural land in Ukraine will gradually weaken, and it will be more difficult for the scientific community to prove to society, country's leadership and land users the need to adopt a separate methodology of accounting for agricultural land.