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The Downsizing of Russian Agriculture1

2005; Routledge; Volume: 57; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09668130500051627

1465-3427

Grigory Ioffe,

Agricultural Development and Policies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes The research leading to this article was funded by the National Science Foundation (Award BCS-0134109). Sergei Pletnev, ‘Rossiiskogo krest'yanina dushit ruka Adama Smita’, www.strana.ru, 24 June 2003. In contrast to collective farms, all of which file identically designed statistical reports annually, household farms are subject to sample surveys. The guidelines for designing a regional sample require selecting a) 25% of the rural raiony, b) 15% of rural administrations of the selected raiony, c) 10% of rural villages under each selected administration, and d) typical household farms within selected villages (Sel'skokhozyaistvennaya Deyatel'nost’ Khozyaistv Naseleniya v Rossii (Moscow, Goskomstat, 1999), p. 12). As far as I know, there is no rigorous control and/or supervision to ensure that regional samples are consistent and representative. It is obvious that the resulting evaluation of the regional household farm output hinges on subjectivism of local statisticians. Galina Kostina, ‘Informatsionnyi golod’, Agrobiznes, No. 4, August 2003, www.agro-business.ru/issue_215551.html Rinat Sagdiev, ‘Khoroshaya pogoda’, Agrobiznes, No. 1, December 2002, www.agro-business.ru/issue_21409.html Mariya Kakturskaya, ‘Rossiya na prodovol'stvennoi igle’, Argumentyi i Fakty, 2002, 37, http://www.aif/1142/06_01.php. ‘Tatarstan stal liderom po proizvodstvu zerna sredi regionov Rossii’, Strana.ru, 6 October 2003, http://www.strana.ru/print/195500.html. Veronika Sivkova, ‘Chto strana budet est'’, interview with Aleksei Gordeev, Minister of Agriculture, Argumenty i Fakty, 2003, 29, p. 3. Nikolai Kharitonov, online conference through Izvestiya, 24 April 2002, http://online.izvestia.ru/archive.pl?fl = Õ&id = 52, p.7. Sel'skoe khozyaistvo Rossii 1998 (Moscow, Goskomstat, 1999), p. 66; Sel'skoe khozyaistvo Rossii 2002 (Moscow, Goskomstat, 2002), p. 66. ‘Pochemu v Rossii nevygoden krest'yanskii trud?’ Newslist.ru, 7 September 2003, http://newslist.ru/Detailed/3778.html. Narodnoe khozyaistvo SSSR za 70 Let (Moscow, Finansy i Statistika, 1987), p. 275. Sel'skoe Khozyaistvo v Rossii (Moscow, Goskomstat, 2002), p. 21. A. G. Efendiev & I. A. Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo: na perelome epokh i reform. Opyt institutsional'nogo analiza’, Mir Rossii, 11, 4, 2002, p. 34. Ibid. Judith Pallot & Tatyana Nefedova, ‘Geographical Differentiation in Household Plots in Rural Russia’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 44, 1, 2003, pp. 40 – 65. Sel'skoe khozyaistvo v Rossii (Moscow, Goskomstat, 2002), p. 52. ‘Pochemu v Rossii nevygoden krest'yanskii trud?’ Sergei Pletnev, ‘Agrarii zaplatyat za spisanie shtrafov vykhodom iz teni’, Strana.Ru, 24 July 2003, http://www.strana.ru Ibid. Leonid Paidiev, ‘Subsidirovanie sel'skogo khozyaistva vsegda osushchestvlyalos' v forme psevdorynochnogo kreditovaniya’, 28 September 2000, http://www.opec.ru/comment_doc.asp?tmpl = comment_doc_print&d_no = 6809 ‘Pochemu v Rossii nevygoden krest'yanskii trud?’ Ibid. Sivkova, ‘Chto strana budet est'’. Stephen K. Wegren, ‘State Withdrawal and the Impact of Marketisation on Rural Russia’, Policy Studies Journal, 28, 1, 2000, pp. 46 – 67. Sergei Dankvert, ‘U nas seichas rynok samyi svobodnyi’, 21 August 2002, http://www.wto.ru/ru/opinion.asp?msg_id = 2543. Aleksei Gordeev, ‘Est’ veshchi bole printsipial'nye, chem byudzhetnaya politika’, Russkii Fokus, No. 39, 10 November 2003; accessed via http://www.ikar.ru/other/statii_11_16.shtml. ‘Proekt konsultingovoi kompanii Asessor’, http://www.agroforum.ru/AC/ptica_o38/; accessed 30 October 2003. Grigory Ioffe & Tatyana Nefedova, ‘Marginal Farmland in European Russia’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 45, 1, 2004, pp. 48 – 51. ‘Subsidirovanie srednesrochnogo kredita v sel'skom khozyaistve’, Institute for the Transition Economy, June 2002, www.iet.ru/trend/07-02/09.htm Pletnev, ‘Agrarii zaplatyat za spisanie shtrafov vykhodom iz teni’. Yu. G. Aleksandrov, Budushchee kolkhozno-sovkhoznogo stroya v Rossii (Moscow, Nauka, 1993). See for example Svetlana Avakova, ‘Perepolokh v kuryatnike’, 14 April 2000; http://ptizevod.narod.ru/new14.htm; accessed 30 October 2003. Galina Kostina & Svetlana Federova, ‘Novye pravila gosregulirovaniya’, Agrobiznes, No. 3, June 2003, http://www.agro-business.ru/issue_21472.html. Avakova, ‘Perepolokh … ’. Pletnev, ‘Rossiiskogo krest'yanina dushit ruka Adama Smita’. Ibid. Kakturskaya, ‘Rossiya na prodovol'stvennoi igle’. Ibid. Sergei Yas'kin, ‘Krest'yane mogut nakormit’ Rossiyu i Evropu, ubezhdeny agrarii’, Argumenty i Fakty, 2003, 17, http://www.aif.ru/aif/1174/07_01.php. Kostina & Federova, ‘Novye pravila gosregulirovaniya. Ibid. Sergei Pletnev, ‘Rossiiskie kury podorozhali na 7 – 10 protsentov’, StranaRu, 21 March 2002; http://www.strana.ru/print/122814.html. Sergei Pletnev, ‘Kakie trebovaniya pred'yavila Rossiya k “nozhkam Busha” ’, StranaRu, 2 April 2002, http://strana.ru/print/126372.html. ‘15 aprelya Rossiya vozobnovlyaet vvoz Amerikanskoi kuryatiny‘, Strana.Ru, 13 April 2002, http://www.strana.ru/print/129443.html. Avakova, ‘Perepolokh …’. Sergei Pletnev & Musheg Mamikonyan, ‘Evropeiskii demping ne daet razvivat'sya nashemu prodovol'stvennomu rynku’, StranaRu, 5 June 2002, http://www.strana.ru/print/146851.html. Ibid. Mikhail Sergeev, ‘Ogranichenie importa myasa i avtomobilei kak predvestnik novoi ekonomicheskoi politiki’, StranaRu, 28 January 2003, http://www.strana.ru/print/170073.html. Marina Smovzh, ‘Pravitel'stvo razberetsya s khlebom “mekhanicheski” ’, Izvestiya, 29 August 2002, http://www.izvestia.ru/economic/article23104. Veronika Sivkova, ‘Kto nazhivaetsya na khoroshem urozhae’, Argumenty i Fakty, 2002, 39, http://www.aif.ru/aif/1144/10_01.php. Rinat Sagdiev, ‘Dmitrii Ushakov: “Strane povezlo, chto u nee net fermerov” ’, Izvestiya, 21 October 2001, http://izvestia.ru/economic /article8055. ‘Rekordnyi urozhai proshlogo goda ne pozvolil krest'yanam srabotat’ s pribyl'yu’, Finansovye izvestiya, 22 September 2003, http://finizv.ru/cfin/tmpl-art_oo/id_art-644265. Marina Smovzh, ‘Rossii trudno uderzhat'sya na mirovom rynke zerna’, Izvestiya, 17 October 2003, http://www.ikar.ru/press/2003_10_17.shtml. Ibid. Grigory Ioffe & Tatyana Nefedova, ‘Russian Agriculture and Food Processing: Vertical Cooperation and Spatial Dynamics’, Europe – Asia Studies, 53, 3, 2001, pp. 389 – 418. Ibid. In November 2003 Danone and Wimm-Bill-Dann failed to negotiate the selling price; however, it was believed negotiations might resume in 2004. Rinat Sagdiev, ‘Khlebnoe mesto’, Izvestiya, 30 January 2001, http://izvestia.ru/economic/article8654. Ibid. Ivan Prosvetov, ‘Belaya smert’ proizvoditelei’; http://www.ko.ru/document_for_print.asp?_no = 2947&p = 1. Rusagro, www.headhunter.ru and www.rafinad.ru. Razgulyai-Ukrros, http://www.raz.ru/rus/group.asp. Marina Smovzh, ‘Produktovyi nabor — v podarok’, Izvestiya, 5 November 2003, http://www.Izvestya.ru/economic/article40725. Rinat Sagdiev, ‘Nelegkaya eto rabota’, Agrobiznes, No.1, 2003, http://www.agro-business.ru/issue_21424.html. Quoted in Marina Smovzh, ‘Agrokholdingam dostalos' malo myasokombinatov’, Izvestiya, 14 November 2002, http://www.Izvestya.ru/economic/article26431. Ibid. Hiram M. Drache, The Day of the Bonanza: A History of Bonanza Farming in the Red River Valley of the North (Fargo, ND, North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, 1964). Those farms originated from the sale of land by the Northern Pacific Railroad to its investors to cover its debts. The bonanza farms became highly profitable through the use of the new machinery and huge crews of cheap hired labour. Over time, however, the land was exhausted (just like the new Russian operators of today, bonanza farmers did not practice crop rotation and sowed grain after grain) and vast farms were no longer profitable. The investors then sold or rented the land out to smaller farmers until, by the 1920s, the last remnants of the bonanza period faded away. Dmitrii Ryl'ko, ‘Eto bylo v stepyakh Minnesoty … vek nazad’, Agrobiznes, 1, December 2002, http://www.agro-business.ru/issue_21413.html. Sagdiev, ‘Nelegkaya eto rabota’. Ibid. Ibid. Demographic Yearbook of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Goskomstat, 1995), p. 19; (2001), p. 21; Chislennost’ i Migratsii (Goskomstat, 2001), p. 17. For example see Stephen K. Wegren, David J. O'Brien & Valeri V. Patsiorkovski, ‘Russia's Rural Unemployed’, Europe – Asia Studies, 55, 6, 2003, pp. 847 – 867. Demoscope Weekly, No. 109 – 110, 14 – 27 April 2003, p. 2, http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2003/0109/print.php. Tat’yana Nefedova, Sel'skaya Rossiya na Pereput'e (Moscow, Novoe Izdatel'stvo, 2003), p. 344. Ibid. See for example, Ioffe & Nefedova, ‘Russian Agriculture and Food Processing’, p. 392. This legend is invoked every now and then in Russia's public discourse. At times the discussion of the issue gets awkward. ‘It is wrong that in Russia, the all-time record of theft has been set under oligarchic capitalism of today’, writes an Izvestiya columnist. ‘In the 1670s, under Aleksei Mikhailovich [the Tsar], the entire state budget was stolen at one point down to the last penny’; see Izvestiya, 2 December 2003, http://www.Izvestia.ru/comments/article41742. Interview with Governor Mikhailov of Pskov oblast', Izvestiya, 7 July 2000. Nefedova, Sel'skaya Rossiya na Pereput'e, p. 87. Ibid. pp. 341 – 342. Anna Lyudkovskaya, ‘Vorovstvo i p'yanstvo’, Agrobiznes, No. 1, February 2003, http://www.agro-business.ru/issue_21427.html Ibid. Ibid. Vladimir Gavrilov, ‘Sukhoi zakon po-Yaroslavski’, Izvestiya, 21 November 2003, http://www.izvestia.ru/community/article41329; In January 2003 StranaRu reported an episode of two local adults stabbing to death six elderly residents of the village of Parshevo (the total population of the village was 14 people) in Vladimir oblast'. The killers' gain was about 4,000 rubles ($129 at the time of the accident). All the villagers received their pension on the eve of the killing (www.strana.ru/168782.html). Galina Kostina, ‘Zakadrili’, Agrobiznes, No.3, June 2003, http://www.agro-business.ru/issue_21475.html; a similar story of binge drinking among the milkmaids in Yaroslavl oblast' was discussed in Grigory Ioffe & Tatyana Nefedova, Continuity and Change in Rural Russia (Boulder, Westview Press. 1997), pp. 240 – 242. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Efendiev & Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo’, pp. 14-15. Ibid., p. 19; similar observations of ‘minimisation of needs’ can be found in Nefedova, Continuity and Change in Rural Russia, p. 315. Efendiev & Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo’, pp. 20. Ibid., p. 18. Similar observations were made by Nefedova, Continuity and Change in Rural Russia, p. 244. Efendiev & Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo’, p. 25. This conclusion echoes that by Zubarevich, who writes about the ‘lumpenisation’ of the Russian village; see Natalya Zubarevich, Sotsial'noe razvitie regionov rossii (Moscow, Editorial URSS, 2003), p. 144. Efendiev & Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo’, p. 37. Grigory Ioffe & Tatyana Nefedova, ‘Persistent Features of the Russian Countryside: Communal Attachment and Reform’, GeoJournal, 1997, 3, pp. 193 – 204. Nefedova, Selskaya Rossiya na Pereput'e, pp. 351 – 353. Predpolozhitel'naya chislennost’ naseleniya rossiiskoi federatsii do 2016 goda (Moscow, Goskomstat, 2002), p. 8. Grigory Ioffe, Tatyana Nefedova & Ilya Zaslavsky, ‘From Spatial Continuity to Fragmentation: the Case of Russian Farming’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, December 2004. www.fao.org Ibid. We used factor scores composed of grain and milk yields and the output's monetary value as well — all of them were closely correlated with each other. Irreversibility most probably pertains to land abandonment in most of the Non-Chernozem Zone, especially its northern part where arable land is interspersed with forest tracts. In such areas a field left idle for no more than three consecutive years is choked with birch and aspen trees. To be exact, growth resumed in 1997. However, 1998 saw a severe drought (on top of the notorious financial debacle) and agricultural output declined yet again. Hitherto uninterrupted growth commenced in 1999. In Russia there are 16 million rural household farms, 14 million urban residents own a plot in the so-called ‘collective orchards’ and 5 million urban residents own a plot in ‘collective vegetable gardens’. Also, there are 2 million dacha owners. The total is 37 million families or more than 100 million people. Additionally, 20 million statistical urban residents (small and medium town dwellers) live permanently in cottages with vegetable gardens attached to them (Nefedova, Sel'skaya Rossiya na Pereput'e, p. 184). Efendiev & Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo’, p. 21. Ibid., p. 38. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Boston, New York and London, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999), p. 1038. Efendiev & Bolotina, ‘Sovremennoe rossiiskoe selo’, p. 18. Michael Flaherty, ‘Family Farm Welfare: A Social and Economic Tragedy’, Wisconsin Interest, Fall 2002, p. 15. Robert Samuelson, ‘A Sad Primer in Hypocrisy’, Newsweek, 11 February 2002, p. 49. Gordeev, ‘Est’ veshchi bole printsipial'nye, chem byudzhetnaya politika’. Flaherty, ‘Family Farm Welfare’, p. 15 Ibid., p. 19. A real joke reflecting a situation like this circulated among urban intellectuals in 1970s Russia. An old woman approaches a rabbi and complains that hens are dying in her hen coop one by one. ‘Take a twig and draw a triangle in front of your hen coop’, advises the rabbi. The old woman complied but came by again in a couple of days. ‘Rabbi, hens are still dying’, she said. ‘Take a twig and draw a circle in front of your hen coop’, was rabbi's advice this time. Upon her third visit, the rabbi advised her to draw a trapezium. Soon afterwards, the woman came yet again in tears. ‘That's it’, she said, ‘my hens have all died’. ‘Oh, what a pity', replied the rabbi, ‘I've still got so many ideas’. Dankvert, ‘U nas seichas rynok samyi svobodnyi’. Allen C. Lynch, ‘Roots of Russia's Economic Dilemmas: Liberal Economics and Illiberal Geography’, Europe – Asia Studies, 54, 1, 2002, p. 39. Ibid., p. 40 Ibid., p. 34. N. C. Field, ‘Environmental Quality and Land Productivity: A Comparison of the Agricultural Land Base of the USSR and North America’, Canadian Geographer, XII, 1, 1968, p. 11. Ibid., p. 9. Ibid., p. 8. R. C. Stuart (ed), The Soviet Rural Economy (Totowa, NJ, Rowman and Allanheld, 1983). L. V. Milov, Velikorusskii pakhar’ i osobennosti rossiiskogo istoricheskogo protsessa (Moscow, Rosspen, 1998), p. 8. Ibid., p. 22. A. I. Treivish, ‘Ogranicheniya v razvitii rossii: novyi geodeterminizm?’, Mir Rossii: Sotsiologiya, Etnologiya, XI, 3, 2002, pp. 62 – 73. Ibid. Ibid. Mark Bassin, ‘Geographical Determinism in Fin-de-siecle Marxism: Georgii Plekhanov and the Environmental Basis of Russian History’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 82, 1, 1993, pp. 3 – 22. ‘Eda v obmen na reputatsiyu’, Profil, 20 October 2003; accessed through http://www.agronews.ru/ObzorID = 675 Ibid.