Rural Transition in Azerbaijan

In 1995-1996 the president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, launched a program of agrarian reforms that caused a sweeping and irreversible shift from Soviet-style collective agriculture to individual farming in his country. These reforms led to an impressive recovery and substantial productivity improvements in agriculture. The agrarian transition in Azerbaijan contrasts with that in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, where land privatization has been accompanied by policies encouraging the persistence of large corporate farms and where agricultural recovery has been much less impressive. For this reason Azerbaijan is today viewed as one of the few examples of successful land reform in the former Soviet Union.

Zvi Lerman is professor and Sir Henry d'Avigdor Goldsmit Chair in Agricultural Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is author of Agriculture in Transition: Land Policies and Evolving Farm Structure in Post-Soviet Countries. David Sedik is Senior Agricultural Policy Officer responsible for the Europe and Central Asia region in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. His duties combine policy related research on current issues of the region with the rendering of policy advice to member countries.