Commercial conflict has limited American soy exports to the biggest market, China, providing Russian farmers an opportunity to enter the Chinese market. The Russian Ministry of Agriculture and the Russian Soybean Union have established a program to promote soybean production and processing. Chinese farmers in the Russian Far East (RFE) and high profits from soybean production make new opportunities and challenges for local farmers. We analyze how the soybean development plan has fared so far and the role of Chinese farmers in Russia. The current Sino-Russian agricultural agreement has little chance of increasing soybean production because of tariffs, unstable regulatory policies, and restrictions on seeds and labor. The scope of the soybean industry can be developed if Russian authorities will take a more liberal approach in Chinese-Russian cooperation.
The availability of large areas of uncultivated land in the Russian Far East (RFE) and the close proximity of millions of skilled, landless farmers in northeastern China has created an opportunity for cooperation in developing the eastern frontier of Russia with Chinese technology. Some Russian scientists claim that there is no advanced technology used in Chinese cultivation. Chinese scientists believe that Russian agricultural technology and genetic seed development stopped in the 1960s. Until now, no economic research has been conducted to determine empirically whether technology transfer is feasible. We applied an econometric model to analyze whether Chinese farmers in the RFE have transferred knowledge of leading plant cultivation methods. We find some evidence of improved yields among Russian farmers who communicate with Chinese farmers in the RFE, strongly suggesting that informal technology transfer is taking place.
The close proximity of China and Russia, the activities of Chinese farmers, and the reduction in Russian labor resources have created job opportunities for Chinese workers in the Russian Far East (RFE). Chinese workers fill a labor shortage in agriculture, but little research has been done on them. We developed an econometric model to test the effects of Chinese intermittent migration on labor markets in the RFE. We found the proximity of Chinese to Russian farms reduces wages for both Russian and Chinese workers and increases their part‐time employment on Russian farms. The greater availability of Chinese workers in the region results in lower number of family members working on Russian farms. Thus, the influx of Chinese workers may contribute to demographic shifts in the Russian population.
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