The countries in Central and Eastern Europe began a remarkable transition from a centrally-planned economy towards a market economy in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and the Iron Curtain lifted. Land reforms with the objective to privatize state-owned agricultural land, managed by large-scale collective and state farms, were high on the political agenda in most countries of the region at the beginning of the transition. More than 20 years later the stage of implementation of land reform varies.

The Programme for World Census of Agriculture 2000 was the sixth prepared by FAO for encouraging countries to undertake an agricultural census with standardized international concepts, definitions and methodologies. The programme covered the censuses carried out during the decade (1996 – 2005). Some 122 countries carried out an agriculture census during the decade and 114 countries made available their census reports to FAO. This publication is a methodological review of the agricultural censuses conducted within the framework of the Programme for World Census of Agriculture 2000.

This paper was prepared within the “Cooperatives and their alternatives” component of the Agrarian Structures Initiative (ASI) which a regional program of FAO in Europe and Central Asia. The purpose of this paper is to introduce Central Asian policy makers to the Western paradigm of service cooperative and to explore the constraints – both physical and ideological – to faster development and acceptance of cooperatives. We also discuss the need for a complete reorientation of the government’s approach to cooperative development.