Land reform, farm structure, and agricultural performance in CIS countries

This article examines the impacts of land reform policies in CIS countries on agricultural performance, including growth and productivity. The focal thesis of the study is that agricultural development in CIS is mainly driven by policy factors, and it is changes in policies (whether agricultural or general economic) that cumulatively affect growth, employment, and productivity in the large rural sector in CIS. The data used in our analysis are taken from an authoritative database that utilizes statistics regularly reported to the Interstate Statistical Committee of the CIS in Moscow by the member countries (CIS 2005). The CIS database covers all the years from 1980 to 2004, and thus provides a useful comparative view of the last decade of the Soviet regime and the 15 years of transition. Some inevitable gaps in the CIS database have been filled in from country yearbooks.