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West Central Iowa | I traveled to Ukraine in '04 on a College of Ag sponsored trip. There are large tracts of land in that country that are very fertile (comparable to many corn growing regions of the US) and some of the livestock operations we visited had technology in place similar to here at the time. I believe that what we saw was not necessarily the norm and that many smaller operations didn't have the access or capitol to take part in more modern production like smaller producers have the opportunity here.
The biggest challenge facing Ukraine at that time was the infancy of their country. They gained independence from the USSR in 1992 but the ideals instilled in the population are hard to erase. When land was returned to private ownership many did not know what to do with it. The 3-4 acres tracts didn't allow people to buy their own machinery (couldn't afford it) so they either rented it to the former USSR farm managers who had the knowledge/management/expertise to run a farm or utilized it as a garden. As more time passes and the citizens of that country become more active in a free market economy, I believe that they could not only bring additional acres to production, but also become more efficient & productive with the resources they have. Undeveloped and underdeveloped areas Eastern Europe & Western Asia do have the ability & potential to produce at higher levels. It's just a matter of how soon those actions will be carried out. | |
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