The third pattern of land use change I examine is the intensification and extensification of land use within villages. As I have shown in Chapter 3, land use within villages had become more intensive in areas close to the village centers and less intensive towards the village fringes since socialist times. In this chapter, I argue that this pattern is the result of a widespread lack of access to capital and labor.

I begin the chapter by highlighting households' dependence on access to land, capital and labor in agricultural production systems in Kodra, Bagëtia and Dardha. I then examine how households gained access to the three production factors in 2004. I suggest that rental arrangements kept access to land flexible. However, access to capital and labor was scarce because, in agriculture, they were merely residuals from other, non-farm, economic activities such as employment in the local service sector or wage labor abroad. I argue that that since the collapse of socialism land users have concentrated capital and labor in areas generating the highest land rents. As a result, they began to cultivate areas near the village centers with more capital and labor intensive crops than under socialism. At the same time, they de-intensified production on their more distant plots.

The Dependence on Land, Capital and Labor in Agricultural Production

In 2004, agricultural production in Albanian villages was characterized by a mix of complementary and interrelated land use practices. Many farming households, for example, grew grapes and onions to generate cash income but produced other vegetables for subsistence consumption.