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Does cooperation lead to private farmers'

success? Findings from a survey in Kurgan

Region, Russia

Abstract

With the collapse of the socialist regimes the institutional environment for doing business had

to be changed. With respect to agriculture, one of the major outcomes had been the (re-)

establishment of private farming. In Russia, this type of farming was politically promoted.

rivate farms were supposed to form the bac!bone of agricultural production. While there had

 been an increase during the "##$s, they did not develop as anticipated. %hey still play a minor 

role between the large-scale corporate farms, which are successors of the former socialistfarms, on the one side and household plot producers on the other.

 &evertheless, private farming seems to become stronger over the last years. While the number 

of private farms has stagnated during the early '$"$s at around '$,$$$ and seems to be

gradually declining during the last years, its share to total food production increased to about

"$ percent in '$". *imilarly, average farm si+e rose to more than "$ hectares.

*ince private farmers start from scratch there is no denying that they are in need of a

supporting infrastructure which similarly has to be set up from scratch. %he set-up of viable

agricultural service cooperatives might be such an option. owever, in most post-socialist

countries, no formalised collaboration among private farmers could be observed. It had been

argued that due to communist legacy farmers had a lot of scepticism. /lternatively, informal

networ!s might be helpful if the institutional environment is not supportive in establishingformal forms of collaboration.

0ased on a structured 1uestionnaire data was collected in a survey conducted through

 personal interviews. It too! place in *pring '$"2 within the 3urgan Region, Russia bordering

3a+a!hstan. "4 private farmers had been interviewed. %he analysis will be done using

descriptive analysis and econometric regression methods.

%he empirical analysis tests whether the characteristics of farmers5 social networ! interactions

may e6plain the farm success, as measured by self-reported farm incomes. It has been

hypothesi+ed that networ!s may connect farmers with each other. %he findings show that

agricultural productivity per hectare of land is higher for those who belong to formal

institutions. %his may indicate better access to farm inputs in cases where mar!ets do not

 provide sufficient access to various farm inputs. %he transaction costs might be reducedthrough social networ! collaborations.

Authors

/6el Wol+ (7eibni+ Institute of /gricultural 8evelopment in %ransition 9conomies), *vetlana

:olovina (*tate /gricultural /cademy 3urgan), ;er!er &ilsson (*wedish

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Session

@*-A0 B /gricultural =ooperatives &o." ("C"2 - Wednesday, '2th Day, alacio de

=ongresos *ala ')

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