Agricultural transformation: Lessons from experience

It is now fifteen years ago that the Berlin Wall fell, the start of a vast set of changes throughout the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Reforms in the Communist world had started earlier further east: first in China in the late 1970s and in Vietnam in the mid 1980s. The changes affected society in a multitude of ways. They affected the way the political and economic system operated but also the social organization of society, the psychology of the people living in the countries, and the culture of day-to-day life. In this essay I focus on how these changes affected the rural economy and the agricultural and food sector. I will discuss developments and performances of the countries during transition, the causes behind them, and the policy lessons they imply. My analysis relies heavily on work I have done with various co-authors on these issues and I refer to these publications for details on some of the issues and arguments which I will forward here somewhat too brief to do justice to their complexity. For more detailed arguments and analyses I refer in particular to Rozelle and Swinnen (2004) and Macours and Swinnen (2000, 2002).Political Economy,

Political Economy of Agricultural Distortions: The Literature to Date

The 1980s and first half of the 1990s were a very active period in the field of political economy of agricultural protection. While the past decade has witnessed a slowdown in this area, there have been very important developments on political economy in other parts of the economics profession. This paper reviews key new insights and developments in the general political economy literature and draws implications for the study of the political economy of distortions to agricultural incentives.Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural distortions, high-income countries, developing countries, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, N50, O13, P16, P26,

Policy Reform and Agricultural Adjustment in Transition Countries

After the fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of the 1980s, dramatic institutional and economic reforms took place in countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Agriculture was dramatically affected by these changes in policies. There are significant differences among reform policies in transition. However, most implemented substantial reforms in price and trade policies; privatization of property rights of land, farms, and agri-food businesses; and reforms of the institutions governing exchange. In this paper, we review key reforms and adjustments and discuss the causes of the differences between countries. In most cases changes in output, input use, and productivity were caused by a combination of initial conditions and reform policies. These interactions are particularly important in understanding the changes in productivity and labor adjustment patterns.Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Political Economy of Agricultural Transition

International Development,

The Political Economy of Agricultural Protection: Europe in the 19th and 20th Century

Important changes took place in agricultural policies in Europe in the 19th and 20th century. The dramatic nature of the changes are illustrated by two years, a century apart: 1860 and 1960. In the 1860s European nations agree on a series of trade agreements which spread free trade across the continent. In the 1960s European nations conclude an international agreement which spreads heavy government intervention and protection against imports across the continent. This paper reviews the nature and the causes of these dramatic changes in agricultural and trade policies, from the beginning of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century, when agricultural policies are integrated in (what is to become) the European Union.Political Economy, Agricultural Policy, Europe, Historical Perspective, Agricultural and Food Policy,

From Public to Private Governance in the Food Supply Chains of Emerging Economies

Food and agricultural commodity value chains in developing and transition countries have undergone tremendous changes in the past decades. Companies and property rights have been privatized, markets liberalized, and economies integrated into global food systems. The liberalization and privatization initially caused the collapse of state-controlled vertical integration. More recently, private vertical coordination systems have emerged and are growing rapidly as a response to consumer demand for food quality and safety on the one hand and the farms' production constraints caused by factor market imperfections. In this paper we (a) demonstrate the importance of these changes, (b) discuss the implications for efficiency and equity and (c) provide empirical evidence on the effects in several developing and transition countries.Agricultural and Food Policy, Industrial Organization,

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Central and Eastern Europe

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Trade, Standards and Poverty. Evidence from Senegal

The debate on trade and poverty is reinforced by recent studies on the role of standards. It is argued that increasing standards act as trade barriers for developing countries and cause further marginalization of the poor. This paper is the first to quantify income and poverty effects of such high-standards trade and to integrate labor market effects, by using company and household survey data from the vegetable export chain in Senegal. We find that exports have grown sharply despite increasing standards, resulting in important income gains and poverty reduction. Our estimates indicate that poverty is 14 % points lower due to vegetable exports. Tightening food standards induced a shift from smallholder contract-based farming to large-scale integrated estate production, altering the mechanism through which poor households benefit: through labor markets instead of product markets. The impact on poverty reduction is stronger as the poorest benefit relatively more from working on large-scale farms than from contract farming.trade, poverty, standards, vertical coordination, contract farming, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, F14, F16, I3, Q12, Q13, Q17,

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON INVESTMENT AND AGRICULTURAL RESTRUCTURING: EVIDENCE FROM POLISH AGRICULTURE

We analyze the impact of assistance programs offered by food processors to supplying farms based on an original survey of dairy farms and companies in Poland. The results show that these programs have had a significant impact at the farm level: on on-farm investments; product quality; and farm restructuring.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Reforms and Efficiency Change in Transition Agriculture

Studies on efficiency changes in transition agriculture yield mixed results. This paper develops both a theoretical model and an empirical analysis of how distribution of efficiency scores changes with the various stages of transition. We use a unique set of representative farm survey data to calculate farm level efficiency scores, compare the efficiency distributions of different transition countries and correlate these with various indicators of particular reforms. Our study indicates that, in particular, general institutional reforms and reforms focused on market institutions and on reducing market imperfections in input and output markets have an important positive impact on farm efficiency.transition, production efficiency, reforms, Agribusiness, P2, E2, P21,