Abstract
The most striking feature of land reform in the post-Soviet space has been the overall shift from collective to individual land tenure in agriculture, generally accompanied by privatisation of legal landownership. Individualisation of farming has been among the main factors that acted to arrest the initial decline in production during the transition and to bring about agricultural recovery in the region. In Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the recovery point for agricultural growth is closely linked with the observed watershed dates for individualisation of farming. Furthermore, the rate and the attained level of recovery are higher in countries that pursued decisive individualisation policies (Transcaucasus, Central Asia), while in countries with less sweeping individualisation reforms (European CIS) the recovery has been sluggish. Land reform and individualisation have also led to significant improvements in agricultural productivity due to the higher incentives in family farming. Greater production and higher productivity have contributed to significant poverty reduction since 2000. To ensure continued improvement of rural family incomes and poverty mitigation, policy measures should be implemented that facilitate enlargement of very small family farms and encourage the access of small farms to market channels and services.
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Notes
- 1.
There were 15 republics in the USSR, or the former Soviet Union. The three Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) adopted a European orientation immediately on the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. The remaining 12 republics formed the CIS. Of these 12 republics, 10 are full members (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan), one (Turkmenistan) is an associate member and Georgia withdrew from the CIS in 2008 in the wake of the South Ossetia conflict. For the purposes of this chapter Georgia is included as one of the 12 original countries of the CIS.
- 2.
Policy measures to increase commercialisation and productivity typically focus on improving the access of small farms to specific market services, such as channels for marketing farm products and purchasing farm inputs, farm machinery services, veterinary and artificial insemination services, extension services and credit services for small farms. These measures are not directly related to land and farm reforms and are not discussed in this chapter. Best-practice experience around the world suggests that farmers’ service cooperatives provide the most effective way of improving the access of small farmers to market services (see Lerman and Sedik 2014).
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Lerman, Z. (2017). Privatisation and Changing Farm Structure in the Commonwealth of Independent States. In: Gomez y Paloma, S., Mary, S., Langrell, S., Ciaian, P. (eds) The Eurasian Wheat Belt and Food Security. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33239-0_2
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