Author: John Gray

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13: 9780821346747

"The success achieved in stimulating real change in farm ownership, control, and management in some areas, combined with the extremity of the difficulties faced by farms in less-favored areas, point to the need for an active process of policy reformulation to address the problems which are now emerging from the restrcturing process." Agriculture in Kazakhstan is in crisis the majority of farms are insolvent and production has fallen to the lowest level in 30 years. Initial restructuring efforts yielded disappointing results and mostly failed to lead to new patterns of ownership or management. However, since 1998 the government has pursued a more aggressive approach to farm restructuring based on increased reliance on farm bankruptcy. This report reviews the experience of the farm restructuring policies and programs pursued in 1998 and 1999 and draws conclusions for the continuing development of agricultural sector policies. This review forms one of a group of simultaneous agricultural sector studies undertaken by the World Bank at the request of the Government of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan: A Review of Farm Restructuring reviews the progress to date in the implementation of the government's reform measures which were begun in late 1998. The report is based on a field mission undertaken in April-May 1999, which concentrated primarily on the Northern oblasts and information provided by the staff of the Headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture in Astana.