What is success and what is failure of transition? A critical review of two decades of agricultural reform in the Europe and Central Asia region

Abstract

This article reviews the outcome of the transformation of a centrally planned into a market economy over the past two decades in the case of agriculture in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It focuses on the question of how transition progress in the region's agriculture can be evaluated and compared adequately. The article presents a set of arguments to question some of the conventional wisdom in the existing literature on what success and failure are in the transition of the ECA region's agriculture. In particular, it challenges the usefulness of counterfactuals that are commonly used in the existing literature to appraise transition progress such as pre-reform output levels, individualised farming structures and WTO-conforming agricultural market regulation. Against this background the widespread view that agricultural reform in the advanced CIS countries has, in general, been less successful than in the new EU member states is questioned.

Post‐Soviet cropland abandonment and carbon sequestration in European Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus

“…Moreover, the cropland suitability map may contain inaccuracies due to imperfect input data and limitations of the spatial regression model. Maybe more importantly, the location of sown areas also depends on factors not considered here, such as institutional support for agriculture [ Wandel et al ., ], farm productivity [ Bokusheva and Hockmann , ], path dependency in agricultural production, and changes in rural demography [ Ioffe and Nefedova , ]. Improvements in accuracy of cropland maps are possible with finer agricultural inventory statistics, particularly on yields and sown areas, and more precise geophysical data.…”

Managerial agency, risk, and strategic posture: Nonmarket strategies in the transitional core and periphery

“…Much of the reform has been piecemeal, partial and subject to capture of vested interests (Arnold & Quelch, 1998;Khanna, Palepu, & Sinha, 2005) and some evidence exists that liberalization has even failed (Wandel, Pieniadz, & Glauben, 2011;Williams, Nadin, & Rogers, 2011). Moreover, the trajectory of some states, such as Belarus and those in Central Asia, was toward new forms of dictatorship rather than liberal democracy (Holmes, 2013).…”

Productive Efficiency of Potato and Melon Growing Farms in Uzbekistan: A Two Stage Double Bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis

“…Improving crop productivity in the farming sector clearly plays a central role in promoting economic growth, increasing food security, and alleviating poverty in the country. As the literature review from developing and transitional countries has shown, efficiency enhancements in using resources positively impact crop productivity [1][2][3]. Given the various agricultural programs and policies implemented over the years to increase farmers' efficiency and productivity in Uzbekistan, it was necessary to quantitatively measure the current levels of efficiencies and their determining factors.…”