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The agricultural privatization strategy adopted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was based on the premise that family farms are the most effective alternative to socialist large-scale agriculture. In addition, international organizations, particularly the World Bank, made recommendations concerning reform speed, synchronization and ownership rights that would facilitate transferring resources from large-scale producers to family farmers. This book provides a critical and comparative analysis of the implementation of this policy, and in particular the strategy promoted by the World Bank. The preservation of large-scale production is the key to Estonia's success while its eradication from Latvia and Lithuania did not produce a family farm system. Work productivity and the extent of plot farming are the indicators of success or failure. Research findings on deindustrialization, the hardships faced by new enterprises, rural tourism, increasing poverty, and problems in the civil society as presented in this book shed new light on these and other key issues in transition strategy.
List of contents
Contents: Rural problematics in the Baltic countries, Ilkka Alanen; The transformation of agricultural systems in the Baltic countries - a critique of the World Bank's concept, Ilkka Alanen; Rural communities in the Baltic states and post - communist transition, Rein Ruutsoo; Constructing capitalist firms: former socialist industrial complexes and their struggle for survival, Jouko Nikula; Networks, skills and trust: the necessary ingredients of rural entrepreneurship in the Baltic countries?, Jouko Nikula; From agriculture to tourism: constructing new relations between rural nature and culture in Lithuania and Finland, Leo Granberg; Trends in development in Lithuanian agricultural policy, Donatas Stanikunas, Irena Krisciukaitiene and Romualdas Zemeckis; Means of subsistence and welfare in a small rural community in South Estonia, Raija - Liisa Kämäräinen; Rural community initiatives in the Latvian countryside, Talis Tisenkopfs and Sandra Sumane; The adjustment of the elderly to socio - economic change in rural Estonia, Leeni Hansso and Marjatta Marin; The significance of the research results, Ilkka Alanen; Annex tables and figures; Index.
About the author
Alanen Ilkka
Summary
The agricultural privatization strategy adopted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was based on the premise that family farms are the most effective alternative to socialist large-scale agriculture. In addition, international organizations, particularly the World Bank, made recommendations concerning reform speed, synchronization and ownership rights that would facilitate transferring resources from large-scale producers to family farmers. This book provides a critical and comparative analysis of the implementation of this policy, and in particular the strategy promoted by the World Bank. The preservation of large-scale production is the key to Estonia's success while its eradication from Latvia and Lithuania did not produce a family farm system. Work productivity and the extent of plot farming are the indicators of success or failure. Research findings on deindustrialization, the hardships faced by new enterprises, rural tourism, increasing poverty, and problems in the civil society as presented in this book shed new light on these and other key issues in transition strategy.
