For Poland, the last decade of the 20th century was a time of intensive social, political and economic change. Poland was confronted with the necessity of quick but deep changes in the economy, as well as in state administration and the functioning of newly-established self-government structures. As a result of...

During the past decade and a half considerable effort has been put into agricultural restructuring in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that are undergoing transition to a market economy. The last decade has also coincided with considerable increase in inequality in all transition economies. The fall in...

Subsistence agriculture is closely linked to a low level of economic development. We find it both in today's less developed countries and in the early stages of industrialised countries. Typically, subsistence agriculture is characterized by a low-external input level and low productivity (per land and/or per labour). In these situations...

Survey results indicate that on the whole, individual farms in transition countries are far from pure subsistence operations. The majority of farms categorized as individual – household plots and independent peasant farms – sell at least some of their output. The proportion of output sold by these farms is quite...

The transformation of the political and economic systems in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) was driven by the desire to combine political freedom with improved living conditions. Market-oriented reform is the essence of transformation for the former socialist planned economies. However, considerable segments of Eastern European and...

Bulgaria began the transformation of its agricultural sector early in the reform process. The chosen path of land reform was radical and aimed at restoring the status quo enjoyed half a century ago. The outcome of this slow and complicated process was a very fragmented structure of land ownership and...

From the point of view of promises made ten years ago, the transition of the food sector of many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) is considered weak and somehow disappointing (MACOURS and SWINNEN 2000). The development of the agricultural sector as the domestic raw material producer for food processing...

In this paper we discuss the developmental perspectives of subsistence agriculture in the wider framework of structural change within an entire economy. We put forward the proposition that subsistence agriculture in Southeastern Poland must largely be understood and interpreted as one single stage of a mid- to long-term process that...

Romanian Agriculture went through major transformations after the political changes of December 1989, due especially to the structural reorganization of land ownership. Agrarian reform started in 1990 with the liquidation of the socialist cooperatives and regulated by the new land ownership law (No. 18/1991), along with a whole series of...

Subsistence agriculture is a phenomenon that is presently encountered not only in developing countries, but also in the Central and Eastern European transition countries (CEECs). The various land reforms implemented in Eastern Europe have led to differences in the land tenure and farming systems and have influenced the access to...

The aim of this contribution is to show what official data are available and what statements can be made concerning the importance of subsistence farming in Georgia. Combining the official figures with observations of the Georgian situation provided insight to the significance of subsistence farming for the Georgian society. It...

Three of the most important Russian agrarian institutions are the subsistence household farm (personal auxiliary farm), the collective farm, and the district administration. Before collectivisation, the Russian peasant farms were primarily subsistence farms. Each peasant farm had two types of land plots: a farmstead plot and field plot(s). After 1917...

During transition, many Ukrainian agricultural enterprises found themselves in a deep economic crisis. Generally, the privatisation and restructuring of the enterprises was merely formal. Agriculture mainly suffers from an adverse  overall economic situation, liquidity problems, and poor infrastructure. In the 1990s the accumulated decline of agricultural output was 51%. In...

The transition process in Russia, which started vigorously at the beginning of the 1990s, has yielded negative economic growth rates for almost a decade, with the exceptions of 1997 and 1999. Agriculture and domestic food industries in particular have suffered from the ongoing transition process and the associated restructuring of...

An estimated 500 million small farmers – men and women – produce most of the developing world’s food. Yet their families suffer more hunger than even the urban poor, have higher rates of poverty and enjoy less access to basic social services. Meeting international commitments to halve hunger and poverty...

The thirteen papers presented in this publication review fish stocks and fisheries of mountainous areas of Asia: Himalayas (Bhutan, Nepal, northern states of India within the Himalayas), Western Ghats (India), Karakoram-Hindu Kush (Pakistan, Afghanistan), Pamir (Tajikistan), Tien Shan (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), Altai (Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China), high altitude lakes of Mongolia and...

Ensuring that women have independent and secure rights to farmland is an important component of eliminating poverty and increasing economic productivity. This is true for three general reasons. First, women are often the primary food producers for a household, working their household farm plots while their husbands work for collective...

All over the world women play a unique and vital role in fixing our broken food system. The prevailing view on agriculture and food in Europe and in European institutions is limited to economics and trade. In these places (old) men in suits discuss amongst themselves and take decisions. In...

The First European Convention on Farming Systems Research and Extension marked the beginning of an exploration and a sharing. Those of us who have participated in the meetings of the Association of Farming Systems Research and Extension (AFSRE) have got to know each other through our work in developing countries....

Conceived as a project by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Neglected crops: 1492 from a different perspective was copublished with the Botanical Garden of Córdoba, Spain. This cooperation came about as a result of the "Etnobotánica 92" congress, convened in September 1992 by the Botanical Garden...