Why are agroholdings so pervasive in Russia's Belgorod<i>oblast</i>'? Evidence from case studies and farm-level data

Epshtein, David; Hahlbrock, Konstantin; Wandel, Jürgen

doi:10.1080/14631377.2013.756673

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…First, Russia's integration into the global food regime is possible because of the emergence of agroholdings. Specifically, a relatively small group of agribusiness companies called agroholdings began to emerge in the early 2000s and now have enormous resources (Epshtein, Hahlbrock, & Wandel, ; Rylko, Khramova, Uzun, & Jolly, ; Wegren, Nikulin, & Trotsuk, ). Agroholdings are mega‐sized, corporate farms.…”

Section: Analysis Of Smallholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “left behind”: Smallholders in contemporary Russian agriculture

Wegren

2018

Journal of Agrarian Change

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Smallholder production in Russia has been in decline for more than a decade. The likelihood is for continued marginalization. Smallholders confront four obstacles. First, path dependencies, which includes the fact that smallholders' production remains traditional and subsistence oriented. Second, institutions in the form of state policy restrict land and animals. Third, Russia's role in the third food regime means that smallholders are unable to help Russia's emergence as a global food superpower. Fourth, smallholders are being left behind in the ongoing technological revolution led by agroholdings. As technological advancement expands in scope, the gap between large farms and smallholders will widen.

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Section: Analysis Of Smallholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “left behind”: Smallholders in contemporary Russian agriculture

Wegren

2018

Journal of Agrarian Change

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“…Financial and other companies rushed into agriculture, engaged in land grabbing, and became large capitalist corporations resembling uncontrolled giant latifundia that support the corrupt state bureaucracy and exploit powerless agricultural workers. By 2009, about two-thirds of all agricultural enterprises in the Belgorod region belonged to agroholdings that produced 90% of the region's total agricultural output, farmed two-thirds of its land, and employed 72% of the agricultural workforce (Epshtein, Hahlbrock, Wandel, 2013). Further, agroholdings use generous regional subsidies to become substantial food producers, and the region is home to some of the largest and financially strongest agroholdings in the country: Miratorg, Efko, Prom-Agro, and Agro-Belogorye.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ideology and Philosophy of the Successful Regional Development in Contemporary Russia: The Belgorod Case

Nikulin

Trotsuk²,

Wegren³

2018

RPS

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“…It is also the number one region for meat production in terms of cattle, pigs and poultry (measured in slaughter weight). 8 This success is based primarily on the development of large-scale farm enterprises in the form of agroholdings -integrated companies consisting of multiple farm enterprises and often other firms in the food chains; in fact, the Belgorod region is perceived as being entirely dominated by agroholdings (Epshtein, Hahlbrock, & Wandel, 2013). However, at the same time, Belgorod has actively supported the small-scale farming sector, in particular through the development of cooperatives.…”

Section: Methodology and Regional Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-socialist agricultural cooperatives in Russia: a case study of top-down cooperatives in the Belgorod region

Kurakin

Виссер

2017

Post-Communist Economies

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Through a study of agricultural service cooperatives in Russia's Belgorod region, this article addresses two gaps in the literature: first, the dearth of empirical studies on cooperatives in post-socialist Russia; second, the lack of attention to top-down cooperatives in the global literature, and the overly negative approach to the topic in the few extant studies. Whereas state attempts to establish agricultural cooperatives in Russia in a top-down fashion have largely failed, such cooperatives have sprung up widely in Belgorod. The article investigates: (1) what influence the (regional) state exerts on the cooperatives, and how that affects their daily functioning and viability; and (2) to what extent such top-down cooperatives might evolve into less state-led forms, such as classic member-driven or businesslike cooperatives. Introduction: the issue of top-down cooperatives The global literature on agricultural producers' organisations-also referred to as agricultural cooperatives-has a rich tradition of studies in the Global South, as well as in the West. 1 To date, the countries of post-socialist Eurasia, including the former Soviet Union, China and Central Eastern Europe (CEE), have attracted much less attention. In particular, the post-Soviet region-with Russia as its biggest country-has largely been ignored. This is especially remarkable when one considers Russia's rich early history of cooperatives, and the extended literature on Russian cooperatives and family farms, which is generally associated with the work of Chayanov ([1927] 1991) and gained importance in agrarian studies in the 1970s through authors such as Shanin (1971). Agricultural cooperatives flourished in Russia in the pre-Soviet period of the early twentieth century (Bilimovich, [1955] 2005; Kotsonis, 1999; Pallot, 1998). By 1914, the agricultural cooperative movement had become the largest in Europe, with over nine million members (Kotsonis, 1999). However, with the onset of communism and forced collectivisation, voluntary cooperatives were replaced by obligatory membership of collective and state farms. Very few comprehensive studies have been carried out on the fate of cooperatives after the demise of the communist system in 1991, and the subsequent decollectivisation. A

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Why are agroholdings so pervasive in Russia's Belgorodoblast'? Evidence from case studies and farm-level data

Cited by 23 publications

References 29 publications

The “left behind”: Smallholders in contemporary Russian agriculture

The “left behind”: Smallholders in contemporary Russian agriculture

Ideology and Philosophy of the Successful Regional Development in Contemporary Russia: The Belgorod Case

Post-socialist agricultural cooperatives in Russia: a case study of top-down cooperatives in the Belgorod region

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