Resource information
One of the striking features of transition from plan to market in CIS agriculture is the
dramatic shift from the predominance of large corporate farms (kolkhozy and sovkhozy,
generally referred to as agricultural enterprises) to individual or family agriculture based on a
spectrum of small farms. The individual sector, combining the traditional household plots and
the new peasant farms that began to emerge after 1992, accounts for most of agricultural
production and controls a large share of arable land. This is a dramatic change from the pre-
1990 period, when agricultural enterprises produced over 70% of GAO and controlled over
90% of arable land.
In this article we assemble evidence that, in our opinion, shows that individualization of
agriculture is associated with the post-transition recovery in CIS and that small family farms
outperform the large enterprises, at least by measures of land productivity. The evidence is
presented here for the five countries of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Previously similar results have been obtained for the Trans-
Caucasian states (Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan) and to a certain extent also for the
European countries of the CIS.
