This paper discusses the trickle-down effects of productivity growth in Agriculture and trade-offs between agricultural aggregate productivity growth and rural poverty alleviation. Empirically, we attempt to establish the link between agricultural productivity growth and the distribution of incomes in rural areas, the price for grains – a major agricultural commodity,...

The paper develops a new perspective in social capital theory by outlining the significance of social capital for organizational development and change. Different mechanisms of economic coordination such as markets, hierarchies and teams have been shown to exhibit various and consistent social capital-dependence. Accordingly, insufficient amount of social capital is...

The paper discusses the impact of industrialized countries' agricultural policy on the development of rural areas, with special reference to the CAP. Against the background of the principles of rural development policy it analyses effects on employment and environmental objectives in rural areas. The impact of agricultural market policies is...

Russian rural areas (populated areas outside towns and cities) occupy two thirds of the country territory. Practically all Russian constituent regions have rural areas, though varying by their share in a region’s total area and by their population number. In the Southern and European Russia and Siberia the former reaches...

This paper aim is to examine various assumptions referring to the increase of subsistence farming in Slovakia during the transformation period. Based on statistical data from small landholdings and individual, non-registered farms in various regions of the country (districts with high and low unemployment, eastern and northern versus western and...

The objective of the paper is to analyse the evolution and strategies of Albanian farms in order to understand the process of adapting to the market economy, to outline the role of agriculture in the country's socio-economic development and to identify future strategies of public policies in rural areas. The...

Georgia is one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet bloc. Over half of its 4.7 million people live below the poverty line, second only to Romania among central and eastern European countries. The purpose of this paper is to describe the grassroots reality of the country’s agricultural sector...

Development is broadly viewed as a process of widening substantive human freedoms or capabilities. In accordance with the concept laid out in the “Development as Freedom,” by SEN (1999), the widening of choice, i.e., the larger number of effective, available alternatives that lead to an ever-greater ability to live a...

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...