Land Policies and Evolving Farm Structures in Transition Countries

The authors review the role of land
policies in the evolving farm structure of transition
countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). They show how
different policies for land property rights, degrees of
control of land rental and sale markets, and procedures for
restructuring former collective or state farms resulted in
significantly different farm structures in CEE countries
compared with those in the CIS. In particular, secure land
rights, greater emphasis on indivualization of land, and
more liberal land market policies in CEE generated a farming
sector with a relatively large share of family farms and
viable corporate farms. On the other hand, limited tenure
security, ineffective individualization of land rights, and
restrictive land policies in most of the CIS produced a
farming structure dominated by large and generally nonviable
jointly-owned farms that function much like the old
collective farms. Family farms are slow to emerge in
transition countries with inadequate land policies. The
agricultural sector in countries dominated by inefficient
farm organizations is characterized by low productivity and
misallocation of resources.