Using long time series of basic agricultural statistics in 12 countries of the former Soviet Union, this article explores the changes in resource use, agricultural production and productivity during the transition. While the share of labour employed in agriculture has increased in all the countries analysed, the share of agriculture in GDP has declined, pointing to generally decreasing productivity of agriculture relative to manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. The precipitous transition decline that began in 1991 with the break-up of the Soviet system gave way to definite recovery starting around 1998. Agricultural growth and performance are shown to be positively linked with individualisation of farming in transition countries and with various measures of policy reform. Countries that have achieved greater progress in the implementation of agricultural reform record better agricultural performance.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.