Suchergebnisse

Agriculture plays an important part in Kazakhstanś self-image, and continues to be a significant economic sector, employing about a third of the workforce. In the two decades since independence, agriculture has experienced dramatic swings in performance and in public policy. During the 1990s the sector suffered from external shocks, reduced public support and inchoate land tenure reform, while providing a safety net for families suffering from the transitional recession. Since the turn of the century, the booming economy has seen ruralurban migration and substantial public funds devoted to the agricultural sector. This article illustrates the steps taken to consolidate and improve Kazakhstanś position as a major agricultural producer and exporter, while also highlighting the shortcomings of current policies. It places Kazakhstanś agricultural policy evolution in the broader context of political independence from the Soviet Union and the general course of economic reforms. We highlight the driving forces of agricultural policy evolution from a political economy perspective and give an overview of specific policy measures.

The years 1946–76 cover the last fifteen years of colonial rule in Tanganyika, and the first fifteen years of Independence. In that period Governments attempted a wide range of policies relating to agriculture. The more important of these are summarised in Table 1. This paper attempts to bring out the historical sequence to show how the perceived weaknesses in one set of policies led to the choice of the next. A general conclusion is that those who controlled the State consistently misunderstood fundamental aspects of peasant agriculture, and over‐estimated what the use of State power could achieve in rural development. More specifically the paper charts a conflict of interest between peasants and bureaucrats beginning in colonial times and continuing today. From a bureaucratic point of view, the peasants are an important section of the economy which they cannot fully control, but which they must attempt to manipulate to extract a surplus of food to feed the cities and export crops to extract the foreign exchange to maintain or expand the State. The peasants view the bureaucrats with mixed feelings: they know that the bureaucrats possess power — to set prices for crops or call in the police force, but they are uncomfortably aware that that power is often used to exploit their labour power.

This Review , undertaken in close co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan and conducted within the framework of the OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Programme, assesses the performance of agriculture in Kazakhstan over the last two decades. It evaluates agricultural policy reforms in Kazakhstan and provides recommendations to address key challenges in the future. This analysis is based on the approach that agriculture policy should be evidence-based and designed to support productivity, competitiveness and sustainable development, while avoiding unnecessary dist