Organizational and economic mechanisms of small-contour land consolidation in the intensive agriculture regions of Azerbaijan

The article is devoted to the study of organizational and economic mechanisms for managing small-contour agricultural lands under conditions of artificial irrigation. Goal. Quantitative assessment of the impact of spatial fragmentation of peasant land shares on the structure of production costs of farmers and the development of a differentiated approach to their consolidation, taking into account the regional asymmetry of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The research is based on the methods of spatial audit of territories, calculation of the Simpson fragmentation index, as well as economic and mathematical modeling of prevented damage based on variable tariff scenarios for special water use. It was established that a critically high level of land fragmentation (Simpson index – 0.995) leads to an excessive length of the irrigation network and an increase in fuel consumption by 11.45 l/ha. It was proved that the implementation of a set of water-saving measures on a 100-ha area provides net savings of 2880 m³ of irrigation water. With a conditional cost of machine water lifting of 3.5 AZN/m³, the specific economic effect is 100.8 AZN/ha. In the context of Azerbaijan’s transition to paid water withdrawal from September 1, 2026, the value of land consolidation up to 5–10 ha and optimization of machinery run length up to 500 m increases significantly. Scientific novelty. A comprehensive differentiated approach to the management of small-contour lands has been developed, combining the restructuring of crops for intensive varieties in densely populated regions and the stimulation of land consolidation in lowland areas.