Russian Agriculture in the Transition to a Market Economy

Dynamics of productivity and technical efficiency in Russian agriculture

“…This development might have resulted from contributions of several different factors. The literature refers to an improved macroeconomic stability, an increase in agricultural investment induced by more favourable terms of trade (TOT) for agricultural products in recent years, as well as extremely favourable weather conditions from 1999 to 2009 (Brooks and Gardner, 2004;Liefert, Liefert and Shane, 2009). Finally, the transition process has been accompanied by restructuring and learning processes at the micro level, which might also have positively contributed to these recent trends.…”

A tale of two commons. Some preliminary hypotheses on the long-term development of the commons in Western and Eastern Europe, 11th-19th centuries

“…Starting with the first FiveYear Plan in 1928, a centrally-directed process of collectivization was carried out. By the 1930s, over 90 percent of the land had already been collectivized (Brooks and Gardner 2004). Individual land owned by rural households was consolidated, together with their livestock and assets, in the kolkhoz, or collective farms.…”

“…State and collective farms gave way to the emergence of cooperatives, limited liability and joint stock companies, partnerships, and sole proprietorships. Eventually, and despite the differences between and within countries, the transition to a fullydeployed system of individual farming began and is currently well under way (Mathijs and Swinnen 1998;Brooks and Gardner 2004).…”

The Investment Behaviour of Russian Farms

“…Indeed, from 1999 to 2003 agricultural output increased by 9.1% annually in constant prices (Rosstat, 2004), while the annual growth of agricultural labour productivity amounted to 13.3%. Improved macroeconomic stability, increased demand for domestic food after the 1998 financial crisis, and an enhanced interest in agricultural investment on the part of more entrepreneurial producers from other sectors (Brooks & Gardner, 2004) favourably affected the economic situation of agricultural enterprises and stimulated investment by Russian farms. In fact, the inflation-adjusted investment volume in 2002 was twice as high as in 1998.…”

“…First, a strand of literature investigates the aggregate trends and determinants of production development in Russian agriculture during transition (e.g. Macours & Swinnen, 2000;Csaki et al, 2002;Osborne & Trueblood, 2002;Brooks & Gardner, 2004). While effectively documenting the remarkable growth processes at the aggregate level, these studies naturally invite further reflections on the distribution of investment trends among individual farms.…”