Household plot

Household plot is a legally defined farm type in all former socialist countries in CIS and CEE. This is a small plot of land (typically less than 0.5 ha (1.2 acres)) attached to a rural residence. The household plot is primarily cultivated for subsistence and its traditional purpose since the Soviet times has been to provide the family with food. Surplus products from the household plot are sold to neighbors, relatives, and often also in farmer markets in nearby towns. The household plot was the only form of private or family farming allowed during the Soviet era, when household plots of rural people coexisted in a symbiotic relationship with large collective and state farms. Since 1990, the household plots are classified as one of the two components of the individual farm sector, the other being peasant farms – independent family farms established for commercial production on much larger areas of agricultural land, typically 10 to 50 ha (25 to 124 acres). In terms of legal organization, household plots are natural (physical) persons, whereas peasant farms generally are legal (juridical) persons.