Agriculture in Transition: Land Policies and Evolving Farm Structures in Post Soviet Countries(Rural Economies in Transition)

The Iron Curtain lifted in 1989, and more than twenty nations emerged from the isolation that had largely hidden them from the rest of the world for more than four decades. In each of these former Soviet States, remnants of tradition and economic organization has prevented them from stepping out, beyond the curtain and onto the world stage. Regardless, some have been extremely successful. In Agriculture in Transition: Land Policies and Evolving Farm Structures in Post Soviet Countries authors Zvi Lerman, Csaba Csaki, and Gershon Feder study the land policies and farming infastructures of these newly emerging nations as components of institutional change in the rural sector - change from a centralized rural economy to a market-oriented economy. Their analysis of the policy, tradition, history, and social structure of these developing states pushes the discussion of economic transition beyond questions policy, planning, and implementation.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Arena and the Common Heritage Chapter 3 Divergent Approaches to Reform: Land Policies Chapter 4 Divergent Approaches to Reform: Changes in Fram Structure Chapter 5 Reforms, Policy Environment, and Agricultural Performance Chapter 6 Lessons of Transition in Agriculture 7 Sources and References

About the Author :
Zvi Lerman teaches financial management, accounting and cooperative theory at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Csaba Csaki is senior advisor, World Bank Rural Development Department. Gershon Feder is research manager, World Bank Rural Development Department.

Review :
This book is an excellent resource for research and teaching as well as for anyone engaged in policy analysis and policy advisory work. There has been an unfortunate tendency to focus too much on commonality and not enough on differences in transition economy initial conditions and processes of reform. This book takes a carefully balanced approach, which acknowledges the common heritage but also clearly shows the different approaches to reform, the underlying reasons for these differences and the consequences of the differing paths. By highlighting divergent approaches taken in a wide variety of countries the authors provide a rich and comprehensive analysis and derive lessons from this analysis that could not be obtained from a more simplistic approach. The authors of Agriculture in Transition, Zvi Lerman, Csaba Csaki, and Gershon Feder—leading experts in the field of agricultural transition—offer a book, which is an enlightening synthesis of their professional work during the first decade of transition. The particular strength of this book lies in its balanced approach: whilst providing important policy-relevant answers, the book relies on combination of well researched factual detail based on reach data and field experience, with rigorous economic analysis. This makes Agriculture in Transition an excellent resource for everyone engaged in research, teaching, and policy advisory work on transition issues. Agriculture in Transition is the best factual and analytical work available on land policy and related issues in the Post-Soviet economies. It will be invaluable to anyone seeking to understand what has been happening in the agriculture of these countries, and what needs to happen for their farm sectors to recover.