1 / 26

Agrarian structures after 20 years of transition: Determinants, trends, and challenges Alfons Balmann

Agrarian structures after 20 years of transition: Determinants, trends, and challenges Alfons Balmann. Some stylised facts . Actual farm structures strongly differ from expectations "western type" family farms play almost nowhere a particular role In general: dualistic farm structures

medwin
Download Presentation

Agrarian structures after 20 years of transition: Determinants, trends, and challenges Alfons Balmann

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Agrarian structures after 20 years of transition: Determinants, trends, and challenges Alfons Balmann

  2. Some stylised facts • Actual farm structures strongly differ from expectations • "western type" family farms play almost nowhere a particular role • In general: dualistic farm structures • large and very large farms • relatively small in numbers • high share in land and capital intensive production (e.g. cereals, granivores) • often successors of former collective (and state) farms • subsistence, semi-subsistence and small farms • huge in numbers • high share in labour intensive production (e.g. potatoes, vegetables, dairy) • motives: self-employment, self-sufficiency • shares vary among countries • shares changed only gradually after first years of transition

  3. Some stylised facts Source: FAO

  4. Some stylised facts Ukraine:dairy production large farms subsistence farms delivered to processors total production years Source: Mykhaylenko 2008

  5. Some stylised facts Farm sizes and their land shares in Germany (2005) Source: Agrarbericht 2007

  6. Explanations • Path dependence • farm structures change very slowly • sunk costs for assets and human capital, market frictions, … • with the exception of "catastrophic" events (bifurcations) • institutional change is slow • new institutions "don't fall from heaven" but evolve • existing institutions in transition economies deviate from textbook assumptions • interdependence of structures and institutions • institutions and policies in favour of status quo • existing structures affect institutional change • structures are outcome of their history not of their superiority • surviving large farms • emerging (semi-)subsistence farms

  7. Surviving large farms • Profit orientation necessary for survival • Employment reduction of successors of collective farms • abolishment of public services • reduction of hidden unemployment • reduction in livestock production • But employment reduction and profit orientationsomewhat delayed • existing assets for livestock production (sunk costs) • identity of ownership and employment (sunk costs of human capital) • avoiding competition with newly/re- established farms • legitimisation strategy of managers • to some extend "job maximization strategy"

  8. Emerging subsistence farms • Households continued farming as in socialist times • Employment reduction of successors of collective farms • Missing alternative employment opportunities in rural areas • Subsistence, semi-subsistence and small farms • a strategy to generate at least some income from own resources(particularly if land and local markets available) • but (in general) rather a by-product of transition than a perspective (limited land availability, financial resources and market access)

  9. Explanations • Path dependence • western structures outcome of their history not of their superiority • biased view of own reality in the Western World • transferring western "paradigm" to transition economies was misleading

  10. Explanations • Technological change • ever increasing capital intensity • ever increasing knowledge intensity • agriculture as "biological manufacturing" (Boehlje 1999) • investment and production driven by venture capital! • Globalisation • agriculture part of global food chains • "supermarket revolution" also in transition countries • farms have to be compatible with standardisation trends • farms need strong local partners along the chain • Both in disfavour of small farms, in favour of large(r) farms! • Both processes continue!

  11. Where are we heading? • Traditional problems • Agricultural treadmill • Quasi-fix production factors • Existing inefficiencies (farm level, sector level) • Structural deficits

  12. Specific case: Germany Selected figures of German FADN farms (financial year 2007/08) • Significant differences between East and West • size differences • intensity differences

  13. Specific case: Germany Selected figures of German FADN farms (financial year 2007/08) • higher labour intensity per ha in the West • slightly higher labour intensity per ESU in the East

  14. Specific case: Germany Selected figures of German FADN farms (financial year 2007/08) • much lower capital use in the East • very low equity in the East, particularly of large full-time farms • deficit in venture capital in the East

  15. Specific case: Germany Selected figures of German FADN farms (financial year 2007/08) • higher profits in the East • partly due to lower rental prices • but: leverage effects

  16. Specific case: Germany Selected figures of German FADN farms (financial year 2007/08) • in general, higher productivity of larger farms • particularly high productivity of very large corporate farms

  17. Specific case: Germany • In the East • farms are efficient and profitable • no ruinous competition on the land market • but sector "suffers" from limited venture capital • potential value added not exploited • higher vulnerability (hired labour, land and capital need permanent payments) • In the West • farms are well equipped with equity capital • but suffer from • low profitability • structural deficits • ruinous competition

  18. Productivity and profitability Efficiency of large wheat farms in Ukraine 2008 (DEA)

  19. Productivity and profitability Efficiency of large wheat farms in Ukraine 2008 (DEA) • huge productivity potentials • important: management, capital endowment • less but also important: size, legal form

  20. Productivity and profitability Profitability of wheat production in Ukraine 2006

  21. Where are we heading? • Traditional problems • Agricultural treadmill • Quasi-fix production factors • Existing inefficiencies (farm level, sector level) • Structural deficits • Recent trends • Globalisation and verticalisation • Biological manufacturing • …

  22. Globalisation and verticalisation International structural change in the pork chain Denmark (2007) 34 % of all pigs in facilities with more the 5000 pigs 20 % of all pigs in facilities with more the 10000 pigs US pork production (2002) 70 % of pork from vertically integrated systems 53 % of all pigs in facilities with more the 5000 pigs 2008: 40 % of all sows held by the 10 largest enterprises Smithfield Foods USA: > 1 mill. sows Poland: about 83.000 sows, >1 mill. hogs in 2008 produced Romania: investments in pork chain with capacity for 4 mill. hogs

  23. Globalisation and verticalisation Pork production in Hungary after EU Accession Source: KSH, AKI

  24. Biological manufacturing Increasing knowledge intensity • Economies of size result from better managing human capital and know how rather than just from decreasing average costs for facilities • division of labour • competent managers • specialised employees • knowledge transfer through supply chain

  25. Biological manufacturing Increasing capital intensity • Financial needs to create one job in livestock productionin Germany • hog feeding: 1 125 000 € • facility per 2500 places at 350 € each, current assets 100 € per place • farrowing: 675 000 € • facility per 250 sows at 2300 € each, current assets 400 € per place • dairy farming: 300 000 € • facility per 50 cows at 4000 € each, current assets 2000 € per place

  26. What are the challenges? • Agriculture is a difficult business • market and weather uncertainty • treadmill, quasi-fixed factors, ruinous competition • Towards the knowledge-based bio-economy • "biological manufacturing" • R&D, innovation, skills • enormous demand for venture capital • Vertical integration/cooperation • amplifies opportunities and threats • Societal perception of modern agriculture • "modern" farmers are a small minority, even within the sector • slow and uncertain policy responses and institutional changes

More Related