This article outlines and assesses the training and education programs focusing on rural and regional human capital development in ?Supply and business Chains?. Today's rural managers and educators must be trained and educated to operate across national boundaries and differing economic, financial and social systems. The article focuses on the training and education in the U.S. Government?s Cochran Fellowship Program. It compares it to the European counter parts This program began in 1984 and vastly expanded in the early 1990?s as Russia and the CIS countries emerged from the communist command oriented ?supply and business chain? systems. Both the East and West have much to gain by improving the human capital in supply chain human management. This means that the human capital must be trained and educated in new technology, transportation systems, planning processes, and trade related issues from differing systems. Rural Mediation and other training and education technigues across cultures, educational backgrounds will also be highlighted. This article looks ahead to the human capital needs in European regional systems and what is needed to bring the current system up to worldwide standards.

Eric, Thor

Olga Panteleeva

English

Research Papers in Economics

ERSA20031 
An Assessment of Developing the Human Capital in Supply Chains  
Across Borders and Cultures in U.S. and Russia and CIS Government 
Programs  
By Dr. Eric P. Thor, S.A.M. and 
  Dr. Olga Panteleeva 
 1 
 
Overview 
 
This article outlines and assesses the programs focusing on human capital development in 
“Supply Chains”. The supply chain future and current managers must be trained and 
educated to operate across national boundaries and differing economic, financial and 
social systems. The article focuses on the training and education in the Cochran 
Fellowship Program. This program began in 1984 and vastly expanded in the early 
1990’s as Russia and the CIS countries emerged from the communist command oriented 
“supply chain” systems. Both the East and West have much to gain by improving the 
human capital in supply chain human management. Regional and Rural Development 
increasing depend upon high quality and applied education. The Local development 
dynamics and potential in peripheral areas depend upon linking job and income 
opportunities locally with income and consumer market options in more established and 
developed areas. This means that the human capital must be trained and educated in new 
technology, transportation systems, planning processes, and trade related issues from 
differing systems. U.S. and European institutions are working together to develop rural 
and peripheral areas of Europe such as Russia and the CIS. This paper reports on the 
areas of joint cooperation to expand the understanding, training and education of Western 
and Eastern parts of Europe. 
 
 Improving Rural and Perifpheral Regions’ “Supply Chain” Management:  
Education and Training 
 
The human capital developments in the Cochran programs and similar European 
Programs are provided by the 1990 Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act.
2 
Originally it was focused on a number of key objectives including: 
•  Education, training and U.S. technology diffusion 
•  Goodwill and Cultural Exchange 
•  Understanding Differences in Agribusiness and Other areas. Disputes and related 
training on such issues as Mad Cow and GMO’s continue to critical to successful 
integration of regions. 
•  Managerial and Organization Change Education 
•  Understanding Emerging Democratic institutions related to trade, marketing and 
other key concepts of Western style supply chains and markets 
•  Strengthen and enhance trade linkages between eligible countries and agricultural 
interests in the United States.” 
•  Agricultural Policy Reform  
•  Transportation, information technology and communications issues 
•  Enlargement and other sustainable issues. ERSA20032 
•  Mediation of Disputes across cultural and other differences.  
•  Financial Restructuring of Rural Areas 
Each individual program has been tailored to the needs of each individual country by the 
U.S. Embassy and Consulate officers, professional trainers and educators and others 
working on institution building efforts for a particular country. A List of eligible 
countries is listed in Figure 1.  
 
Figure 1: Countries of Early 1990 Cochran Programs 
Russia Kazakhstan  Uzbekistan 
Bulgaria Yugoslavia  Lithuania 
Hungary Poland    Czech  Republic 
Tajikistan Georgia    Armenia 
Turkey Moldova  Turkmenistan 
Macedonia Montenegro   
   
 
For the first few years, the program was managed by the OICD (Office of International 
Cooperation and Development). Since the reorganization of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture in the mid 1990’s, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has managed these 
programs successfully. This article reviews the evaluations of some 450 participants who 
participated in the Arizona State University’s  programs since 1994. Each participant was 
given an evaluation form similar to the one provided in Appendix A. The purpose is to 
explore possible areas for improvement in the training and suggest ways to improve the 
training across the “supply chains” which have been developed.  
 
Since the mid 1990’s, the U.S. Senate and Congress have expanded the program 
objectives to include: 
1.  Trade Promotion and Issues related to GATT 
2.  Food and Animal Safety and WTO related issues 
3.  Emerging Market “ supply chain management and development”. 
4.  Mid Level Executive Training in key areas related to U.S. Export Markets 
5.  Industry Specific Training to meet U.S. government and congressional mandates 
related to emerging markets. 
6.  Providing Education and Trading for the Rural and Peripheral Regions 
7.  Linking U.S. Farmer and Rancher organizations with International Market 
participants and executives 
8.  Improving the Understanding of Regional Development and New Models of 
Growth 
With this addition, the number of countries has grown significantly with little increase in 
funding in the mid 1990’s. The U.S. Congress has funded these programs on the annual 
basis. Since the “1996 Freedom to Farm Act” the number of countries has expanded to 
nineteen as new countries have sought training and education in the U.S. The number of 
countries has reached 58 under the new “Freedom to Farm” legislation.  
Figure 2: Expanded List of Countries under The “Freedom to Farm” Act 
Russia Kazakhstan  Uzbekistan 
Bulgaria Yugoslavia  Lithuania ERSA20033 
Hungary Poland    Czech  Republic 
Tajikistan Georgia    Armenia 
Turkey Moldova  Turkmenistan 
China Indonesia  Pakistan 
Brazil Albania  Bosnia 
Croatia Estonia Latvia 
Macedonia Montenegro  Romania 
Slovakia Slovenia  
 
 
As world food business linkages and supply chains expand, education and training must 
develop the human capital and individuals from different countries and different 
educational cultures. While agribusiness education has been expanded at the 
undergraduate and graduate levels, little attention has been placed on short-term 
professional education for emerging markets, such as Russia and CIS countries.  The 
transition of educators and executives is a key part of the challenge of transitioning their 
economies from a command to a market-oriented economy. Both the European Union 
and the U.S. spend over $20 Million annually in these areas to improve the linkages and 
understanding in agribusiness supply chains. Both the European Union and the U.S. have 
had education and training programs in place with Russia since the early 1990s, including 
over 150 separate education and training projects.  
This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of such programs, the Cochran 
Fellowship and longer-term education programs funded by the U.S. department of 
Agriculture. The authors have either taught or participated in these programs.  The article 
also highlights the evaluations the participants made, Arizona State University where ten 
years of evaluations will be analyzed.  The participants from Russia and other emerging 
markets have been focusing on providing real linkage to the marketplace, understanding 
of the education process in Western Europe and the U.S. The linkage and training has 
been developed in several interesting areas related to the food chain. 
In 1996, three professionals, Dr. Ikbal R. Chowdhury, Dr. Craig L. Infanger, and Dr. 
Micheal Reed evaluated these programs. 
3 
The authors highlighted the gains under education, training and U.S. technology 
diffusion. To assist this goal, over 7000 individuals have been trained under this program. 
This mid decade report highlights a number of milestones in this area. This includes that 
many participants felt this was the “single most important or useful part”
4 of their 
experience.  
  The mid decade evaluation concluded that there were strong benefits for the 
Goodwill and Cultural Exchange components. The participants in the mid decade study 
highlighted the key importance of understanding the cultural and goodwill components of 
the U.S. and home country relationships. This helps develops products and services that 
can be better tailored to the customer.  
The mid decade evaluation highlighted some of the managerial and organization change, 
which will impact supply chain management, which has taken place as a result of these 
trainings and educational efforts. Based on the participant interviews, the authors’ 
experience, and secondary data, over 84 percent of participants agreed that organization 
change had taken place. Close to 90 percent of the participants have seen job changes, ERSA20034 
promotions, and increased responsibility in their current jobs. Additionally, over half of 
the interviewed participants had reported better management of their farms, agricultural 
cooperatives, rural banks, agribusinesses or related subjects.
5 
Another area of focus of this training and education is the understanding Emerging of 
democratic institutions and governance of both the public and private sectors related to 
trade, marketing and other key concepts of Western-style supply chains and markets. This 
area of training and assessment is harder to document. The participants in the mid-decade 
study suggest changes in retail store management, importing U.S. technology or goods, 
test marketing of U.S. food products in grocery stores, adopting American-style food 
store management, privatization of state farm product marketing enterprises, auction of 
assets, reorganizing academic curriculum and initiating new research and pilots of rural 
banking and credit systems.  
Another important aspect of this supply chain training has been to strengthen and 
enhance trade linkages between eligible countries and agricultural interests in the United 
States.” Between 1991 and 2000, Agricultural Trade has grown by 45%according the 
FAS statistics
6. This overall growth has been in part due to the restructuring of global 
markets. Several segments, including grains and cattle, have declined due to lack of 
purchasing power and other disruptive factors associated with the transition to a market 
based economy. For example, training in rural credit and trade financing systems have 
allowed for trade to develop in the private sector.  
The Agricultural Policy Reform in chain management has been an important area of 
human capital development. Since most managers in the Former Soviet Union have little 
or no experience, the training in national, regional and local policies to encourage 
consistent market oriented public and private policies and behavior.   For example, one 
area taught by ASU has been in trade policy management including understanding grades 
and standards, WTO requirements and phytosanitary requirements of the U.S. and other 
WTO members. In the new millennium, food safety concerns will continue to drive new 
requirements on all countries as each country sources additional products from the other. 
The “safety of any chain” depends upon training, education, and technical knowledge. 
Another important area of the training and education has been the financial restructuring 
of rural areas. As collectives, private property, machinery and farm and rural assets are 
being developed and improved technically, it is important to understand the changes in 
financial structures in the rural areas. 
Since the mid 1990’s, another important area of training and education has been related 
to trade promotion and GATT issues. Managing supply chains under the new Ministerial 
declaration signed at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference held in Doha, Qatar] Trade 
Round will provide many challenges for Russia and the CIS countries. Meeting ISO 
standards, assuring grades and standards, GMO and residue management are areas where 
the U.S. government team has focused. Most Russia and CIS countries have found the 
CODEX Alimentarius standards and requirements hard to implement. Both the U.S. and 
Western Europe have had challenges explaining the requirements of agricultural 
commodities and products to Russia and CIS supply chain managers. Thus, Cochran 
training in this area has helped countries develop better export mechanisms and food 
safety for western markets.  
Another area, which affects chain management, is food and animal safety and WTO-
related issues. As a result, several of the programs have focused on helping the managers ERSA20035 
of chains in Russia and CIS countries in these areas. For example, one program at ASU 
focused on Dairy and milk marketing management. 
The focus of several of the training sessions has been on the Emerging Market “supply 
chain management and development” between the U.S. and Russia. Programs on 
Warehouse Receipts and Shipping and Port Management have focused on improving the 
chain management from farm to market. By improving the efficiency of both the imports 
and exports from Russia it can increase the efficiency of both countries agribusiness 
managers.  
Another area of focus has been industry specific training to meet U.S. government and 
congressional mandates related to emerging markets. 
This includes the linking U.S. farmer and rancher organizations with international market 
participants and executives. The authors concluded, “in terms of the stated evaluation 
criteria”, it is clear that the training and education programs are doing an excellent job of 
goodwill and cultural exchange”.
7   In the mid 1990’s major farm organizations including 
the Farm Credit System, Farm Bureau, National Cattlemen Association, U.S. Grains 
Council, and U.S. Wheat Growers have participated to improve the marketing potential 
and understanding by American farmers and ranchers of the dimensions of the global 
market. In the area of technical diffusion and understanding the programs have also been 
a success in expanding understanding of the chain. In the survey they conducted they 
noted that the participants highlighted that the most important part of the training 
experience was “things that they had learned about agricultural cooperatives, banks, 
agribusiness or related subjects”.
8 Participants in the Arizona State program suggest that 
additional focus on emerging areas such as rural tourism, value-added chain processing, 
transportation and logistics, grading and standards, and warehouse receipt financing 
would also be helpful in these programs.   
                              
1 Dr. Eric P. Thor, S.A.
Agribusiness and Reso
Washington D.C, prese
Usmanova is a candida
Kostroma State Univer
2 Section 1543. The act
countries to “develop a
and (b) strengthen and 
United States.” 
3 An Evaluation of the 
1996. Dr. Ikbal R. C
 
4

An Assessment of Developing the Human Capital in Supply Chains Across Borders and Cultures in U.S. and Russia and CIS Government Programs (?)

http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa03/cdrom/papers/204.pdf

An Assessment of Developing the Human Capital in Supply Chains Across Borders and Cultures in U.S. and Russia and CIS Government Programs (?)

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