Agricultural economics and transition: What was expected, what we observed, the lessons learned Proceedings (Volume I / II)

Over fifteen years have elapsed since the transition from the centrally plannedeconomic system started in the early 1990’s. During this time agricultural andrural areas of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone profound structuralchanges with wide variations in the degree of transformation and in the rate ofsuccess in creating a competitive market and private ownership based food andagricultural system. By becoming member of the European Union the "transition"in its traditional interpretation has been concluded in ten of the Central EastEuropean countries. The transition to market based agriculture, however, is farfrom completion in Southern and Eastern Europe and especially in the CIScountries.International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) and EuropeanAssociation of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) in collaboration with theCorvinus University of Budapest and with a number of other institutions inHungary organized an inter-conference seminar on the subject of agriculturaltransition in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The major objectiveof the seminar was to discuss and draw conclusions on the role of agriculturalpolicy in the transition process in the light of actual progress and current situationin Central and East European countries and in formal Soviet States. In additionthe contribution of agricultural economics – both from the West and from theEast – as a discipline and a profession to the transition process in agriculture werediscussed. A specific objective was to identify priorities and means to strengthenthe agricultural economics profession in the transition countries and determineresearch and educational priorities for the future.The seminar was attended by 118 participants representing 26 countries fromEurope, North America and Asia. The Seminar was the largest professionalmeeting organized by the two associations in 2007. Over 110 abstracts weresubmitted and evaluated by the International Program Committee. In the twoday program of the meeting, 8 presentations were made during the 3 plenarysessions, 66 papers were presented in the 15 contributed paper sessions in 8 subjectcategories. In addition there were 15 posters discussed in the poster session andthe findings of a World Bank study on distortions of agricultural incentives inthe region was the subject of a pre-conference workshop. Plenary speakersincluded Ulrich Koester, Johan Swinnen, Jerzy Wilkin, Zvi Lerman, EugeniaSerova and József Popp-Gábor Udovecz. At the end of the seminar David Colman, President of IAAE gave a global assessment of the status of agriculturaleconomics discipline and profession, while Csaba Csáki, former President ofIAAE made summary comments on major issues discussed during the seminar.This volume includes the plenary and contributed papers presented at the seminarand submitted for publications by the authors as well as the abstracts of the posterpapers discussed.The seminar was supported and sponsored by a number of organizations andpersons. All of their contributions have to be greatly acknowledged. First thetwo international organizations IAAE and EAAE have to be mentioned, whichprovided overall organizational framework and logistical support. The IAAEprovided in addition a generous grant to support the participation of youngagricultural economists from Central and Eastern Europe on the seminar. On theHungarian side the Corvinus University of Budapest, the Szent István Universityof Gödöllő, the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, the HungarianAgricultural Economics Association, the Hungarian Association of AgriculturalSciences and the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmentwere the major material and organizational supporters. The International Programcommittee was chaired by David Colman and Csaba Csáki and includedUlrich Koester, Joe Swinnen, Eugenia Serova and Jerzy Wilkin. The localOrganizing committee was chaired by Csaba Forgács and István Szűcs andincluded Zoltán Lakner, András Nábrádi, József Popp, József Tóth, Gábor Udovecz,László Vajda, László Villányi, Krisztina Fodor, Attila Jámbor and Tamás Mizik.Finally IAMO, Halle facilitated the publication of this proceedings.