The Impact of Land Reform on Economic Development in Rural Kazakhstan

INTERIM ACITVITY REPORT

 March 1, 2004- December 1, 2004

During the first stage of IPF internship, which covers the period of March to 1, December 2004, the following activities were undertaken in the following area:

-    Academic policy research

-    Interviews and field studies

-    Meeting with officials, politician, financial institutions and other agencies.

1. Academic Policy Research.

The policy research is important part of the fellowship. In accordance with the project Work Plan the following activities were conducted: analyzing land legislation and its development; analysis of a rural area and collecting all needed social and economic data; undertaking a study of academic literature and publications.

1.1 Analyzing Land Legislation.

The title of the research project is stipulated the necessity to get understanding the legal framework of land reforms and therefore there was need to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the laws and legislative acts, that ground land relations in Kazakhstan.

The considerable numbers of legislative acts were scrutinized and analyzed. This included such the basic legislative acts on land relation such as: the Land Code of 1990, the Land Code of 2003, the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the Law of Kazakh Soviet Republic ”On Peasant Farm”, Presidential Decree “On Same Issues of Land Relation”, Presidential Decree” On Further Improvement of Land Relation”, the Law of Kazakhstan “ On Land” of 1995,  the Law of Kazakhstan “ On Land” of 2001, the Law “On Prioritised Development of Auls, Villages and Agriculture” of 1991, the Presidential Decree “ Concerning the Transference of Sovkhozes Property Part to Director Ownership” and other Presidential Decrees and Government Resolutions.

The conducted analysis of legal acts and documents was introduced in first chapter of the research paper “Land Legislation Development in Kazakhstan”.  This analysis of legal acts allowed describing the land legislation development and defining of main stages of the land reform in Kazakhstan for last 14 years. Also, this analysis of legal documents contributed to get a whole picture of conducted farm privatisation and agrarian reform in Kazakhstan.  

The analysis of current legislation defined the weaknesses and deficiencies, which may have negative implication for rural residents. This finding together with concept of the land reform was incorporated in third chapter “Implementation of Land Reform”. Some publication on land reform, which was prepared by Research Centre under Presidential Administration under assistance German Society on Technical Cooperation and relevant state agencies such the Ministry of Agriculture, Agency on Land Management were studied very carefully in order to get comprehensive understanding recent land reform.

1.2 Analysis of Rural Area and Collecting Social and Economic Data.

 This analysis is intended to determine the current status of a rural area and identify the main issues for rural areas thus far. The majority of social and economic data were collected from official statistical publications. The results of this data analysis were described in chapter two of the paper. In order to identify main issues for rural areas and the following data was analyzed:

-  Data, relevant to farmland such as arable land, irrigated land, land reserve fund.

-  Data on agricultural production and state financing agricultural producer.

-  Data on poverty issues, earning income of agricultural workers and comparison with   

    wages  with workers of other industries. 

The demographic profile of rural residents was determined on the basis of the official statistical data.  Also, some data on poverty issues and result of sociological survey were utilized in this paper and it is presented in chapter four.

1.3 Academic Literature and Publication Study.

A number of academic works and publication have been studied during period of reporting. The reports of international financial institutions such ADB and WB on the agricultural issues in Kazakhstan and other Central Asia Republic were studied in getting some ideas about the nature and concepts of conducted reforms. Publications of UNDP and other international and state agencies allowed comprehending the poverty issues in rural Kazakhstan. Besides, the academic works of some local scholars helped me to enlarge my knowledge regarding the land legislation and land relations in Kazakhstan.

 2.  Interviews and Field Work

 The two surveys were conducted in Atbasar raion of Akmola oblast in Novo-Marinovki and Yaroslavki rural administrative unit (county) and the latter comprises three villages. During the field work interviews were conducted with heads of this administrative units and relevant local state agencies and they are presented below:

-   Atbasar Raion Committee on Land Management (Mr. Nurmaganbetov Zhumabai)

-   Atbasar Raion Department of Agriculture ( Mr. Zhanabaev Serik)

-   Rural Administrative Bodies ( Ms. Valitova Svetlana, Mr. Tehnenko Vladimir)

Also, the meeting was conducted with owners of land shares, head of peasant farms and director of agricultural enterprises. Two surveys were conducted among rural residents of these rural administrative units. First survey was directed to rural residents and all head of peasant farms and director of agricultural enterprises were asked and other rural residents were asked by random choosing.  The respondents on second survey were owners of a conditional land share on the same principle.

3. Meeting with Officials, Politician, Financial Institutions and Other Agencies

Several meeting were conducted with officials in order to get their opinion on land reform, particular introducing private ownership on the agricultural land.  These meeting were conducted with politicians, scholars, land relation specialists and government officials at the following institutions, public organisations and state bodies:

-   Ministry of Agriculture (vice –minister Ms. Mysina)

-   State Committee on Land Management (chairman Mr. Ospanov)

-   Institute for Agro-Industrial Economic and Rural Territories Development (Dr. Grigoruk)

-   Agrarian Party (deputy head of agrarian party (Mr. Ramazanov Nurlan)

-   Peasant Social Democratic Party (chairman Dr. Kaliev Gani)

-   Agricultural Credit Corporation (chairman - Mr. Karazhigitov Askarbek)

-   Joint Stock Company KazAgroFinance (chairman - Mr.Tagashev Ibragim)

-   National Federation of Farmers of Kazakhstan ( Mr. Levin Vladimir).