Post-Soviet Agricultural Restructuring: A Success Story After All?

Abstract

Challenging the initial expectation that all post-Soviet economies will evolve from collective toward fully individualized farming, I argue that they separated into two different reform paths. In the European successor countries and Kazakhstan, corporate and family farms coexist, labor exited agriculture, and capital inflow boosted labor productivity (a “Westernization”). In the Transcaucasian and the other Central Asian countries, complete farm individualization did not increase labor productivity much, in turn keeping rural incomes depressed (a “Southernization” akin to the Global South). Future policies should promote income alternatives to agriculture and improve the flexibility and transparency of farm consolidation processes.

Stakeholder Engagement and Perceptions on Water Governance and Water Management in Azerbaijan

“…Agriculturally, the post-Soviet transition manifested in substantial land reforms and the change of venerable agricultural practices in Azerbaijan. The Land Reform Act of 1996 permanently shifted the collective kolkhoz and sovkhoz resource management systems to privatized capitalistic enterprises to economically compete with the West [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Once these state-based management systems disappeared, so did the routine maintenance and upkeep of irrigation networks, which the country is struggling to deal with the consequences of today [23][24][25].…”