Research on the Changes of the Rural Society in Russian Far East

Research Project

Project/Area Number	09041073
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	Field Research
Research Field	Agro-economics
Research Institution	Hokkai-gakuen University
Principal Investigator	ONUMA Morio Hokkai-gakuen University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (80145979)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	IWASAKI Toru Sapporo University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (90104900) YAMAMURA Rihito Hokkaido University, Slavic Research Center, Professor, スラブ研究センター, 教授 (60201844) OYA On Sapporo University, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Junior Professor, 外国語学部, 助教授 (20275465) SHIGA Eiichi Hokkaido University, Faculty of Agriculture, Junior Professor, 農学部, 助教授 (50235511) SASAKI Yo Sapporo-gakuen University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (00074899)
Project Period (FY)	1997
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1997)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,500,000) Fiscal Year 1997: ¥4,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,500,000)
Keywords	Russian Far East (RFE) / Urban Agriculture / Gardening by Citizen / Land Reform / Self-supporting Allotment / State Farming / Peasant Farm (fermer) / AKKOR (Associate of Peasant Farms and Agricultural Co-operative / 農業改革 / 国営農場の改組 / 個人農(フェルメル) / 農業協同組織(コ-ペラティブ) / 主穀生産 / 家庭菜園農家 / 商品クレジット(現物取引)
Research Abstract	This is a brief summary of our three years filed investigation to calrify the present situations of the drastic shifts in the rural society of Russian Far East (RFE). In 1995 we went to Khabarovsk, the center of the RFE where the medium size of farming concentrates on potato, vegetables adn dairy. In 1996, the Amur district where the huge farms grow feed crops and livestocks. Last year, Primorsky where not just the urban agriculture near Vladivostock grows vegetables, livestocks and dairy, but also rice is grown in a part. In 1997 we also visited Sakhalin where the relative smaller farming, for example gardening by citizen, does that, too. The reorganisation of the former collective farming and the foundation of Fermer (fermer=the peasant farm) had been going on well in line with the land reform policy by the early 1990s. However, these processes have faced a turning point in 1994 or 1995. For the central government stopped the financial support, the prices of amchinery and materials jum … More ped by inflation, and the food imports and the self-supporting allotment by citizens came to restrain the demand for domestic agricultural products. The former collective farming has changed to the form such a limited responsibility company, a joint stock company or a co-operative firm in general. Also its land and the other assets have been divided as the "quota" among the former constituent members. On rare occasions, however, it has happened to remains a previous type of state farming or come back to the former farm itself again. We can recognize two diverging tendencies since 1993 or 1994. A few farms that keep better managing staffs and try technical innovation are developing continuously, however the others that failed to come out of themselves are worsening the performance. After the peak in 1993 and 1994, not only the number of peasant farms are decreasing because of a steep decline of the newcomers and the giving up, but also the existent peasant farming in many cases is obliged to suspend to cultivate. The critical problem caused by the decline of peasant farms is that the operation of the AKKOR ( The association of Peasant Farms and Agricultural Co-operatives of Russia) stands on the blink of bankruptcy. In Khabarovsk the AKKOR branch came to depend important operations on the local government since it could hardly keep even a full time official because of financial shortage. Less