Russia's New Agricultural Operators: Their Emergence, Growth and Impact
- PDF / 97,823 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 441 x 666 pts Page_size
- 15 Downloads / 170 Views
www.palgrave-journals.com/ces
Russia’s New Agricultural Operators: Their Emergence, Growth and Impact DMITRI RYLKO1 & ROBERT W JOLLY2 1
IKAR – Institute for Agricultural Market Studies and IMEMO Agribusiness Center, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Data from case studies, interviews, and surveys are used to explore the emergence, growth, and likely consequences of new agricultural operators (NAOs) in Russia. NAOs or agroholdings are very large farming operations averaging more than 50,000 ha, which are externally owned and managed. Entry motives and patterns vary widely, but most NAOs are responding to real profit opportunities. They bring with them the means to overcome market and institutional imperfections, as well as limitations in human and physical capital. However, there is a real risk they may lead to the creation of Russian latifundia to the possible detriment of the rural population. Comparative Economic Studies (2005) 47, 115–126. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100087
Keywords: Russian agriculture, transition economies, agroholdings, farm structure, latifundia, farm consolidation, vertical integration, diversification JEL Classifications: O130, P250, P260, P270, P320, Q130, Q150
During the Soviet period, Russian agriculture was characterised by large collective and state farms co-existing with small household plots. The breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s brought with it an expectation of a breakup of the collectives as well – into something smaller, more efficient and, presumably, family owned and operated (World Bank, 1992). The prevailing view was that the organisational landscape of Russian agriculture would be represented by three organisational forms: collective farms that had undergone privatisation and reorganised in various corporate forms, independent peasant farms, and household plots. For a variety of reasons, including insufficient structural reforms, independent peasant farms did not take root in Russia. Today they produce less than 3% of agricultural output (Uzun, 2005).
D Rylko & RW Jolly Development of Agroholdings in Russian Agriculture
116
Throughout most of the 1990s, Russian agriculture experienced a dramatic loss of capital, while all the key indicators of agricultural efficiency and productivity deteriorated. Russian agriculture earned a well-deserved reputation within the private investment community as a risky, low-return sector. However at the end of 1990s, particularly following the devaluation of the ruble in 1998, the widely held view of a ‘hopelessly stagnating’ agriculture began to change. Russian agriculture, especially crop production, has grown steadily since 1999, while important structural and organisation changes have begun to emerge, particularly within the corporate-farm segment. New firms and new money slowly entered agriculture in significant contrast to conditions at the beginning of the decade. One of the most dramatic changes has been the emergence of
Data Loading...
