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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Kosec, K.; Shemyakina, O. |
| Abstract: | Does privatizing land improve child health and nutrition outcomes? We exploit a natural experiment in The Kyrgyz Republic following the collapse of socialism whereby the government rapidly liquidated state and collective farms containing 75 percent of agricultural land and distributed it to individuals, providing 99-year transferrable use rights. We use household surveys collected before, during, and after the reform and data on the spatial variation in the timing of privatization to identify its health and nutrition impacts. We find that children exposed to land privatization for longer periods of time accumulated significantly greater gains in height and weight, both critical measures of long-term health and nutrition. Children who benefited most from privatization were between the ages of 1 and 1.5 possibly due to protective effects of breastfeeding for children younger than a year old, and reduced vulnerability to health shocks at older ages. We find no evidence of significant gender differences in the effects of privatization. Acknowledgement : We thank both the Georgia Institute of Technology and IFPRI s Central Asia Program for financial support. We are also grateful to the Life in The Kyrgyz Republic (LIKS) team for their support, which included adding questions on the timing of land reform to round 5 of that survey, explicitly for the purposes of this study. The authors may be contacted at: Katrina Kosec, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI, 2033 K Street, NW Washington, DC 20006, USA, , (323) 229 3180. |
| Keywords: | Health Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277302&r=cwa |
| By: | Mizik, T.; Torok, A.; Jambor, A.; Kovacs, S.; Sipos, L. |
| Abstract: | The competitiveness of agriculture in international trade is a relatively understudied field in the literature, especially in Central Asia. The aim of the paper is to analyse the comparative advantage patterns in the agriculture of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Results suggest that agriculture still plays an important role in the region and the majority of countries are net food importers. Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia had the highest Balassa indices with cereals as leading export products and Belarus, Ukraine and Azerbaijan are also having some comparative advantage at the same time. Based on trade performances, several country groups were set up. Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova showed similar characteristics, while Russia with Kazakhstan as well as Belarus with Ukraine demonstrated similarity. Comparative advantages, however, have not turned out to be persistent according to stability and duration tests as survival chances fell significantly from 2000-2003 to 2012-2015. Acknowledgement : This work was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office [grant number 119669, Competitiveness of Agriculture in International Trade: A Global Perspective ]. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support. |
| Keywords: | International Relations/Trade |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277481&r=cwa |
| By: | Ganiev, Ibragim; Sanaev, Golib; Pardaev, Khusniddin |
| Abstract: | Since national independence, the government of Uzbekistan has been paying attention to developing its education system, including agriculture. A number of regulations have been adopted in order to address the problems in education. Among these, the Law on Education (1997) and the National Training Programme (1997) are the main two regulations adopted to address issues related to the national educational system of Uzbekistan. Nevertheless, a problem of a lack of qualified agricultural personnel in rural areas still exists, and the majority of young cadres try to find jobs in cities. This analytical study aims to analyze the motivation, aspirations, and career expectations of undergraduate and graduate students of Samarkand Agricultural Institute. In the first part of the analytical study, we review the agricultural education system and underlying policies in Uzbekistan by dividing them into pre- and post-independence periods. In the second part, we discuss the survey results of 400 undergraduate and 50 graduate students from Samarkand Agricultural Institute. The results reveal that half of observed students did not make a career choice yet and face uncertainties in employment decisions. Compared with undergraduate students, the share of graduate students wishing to continue their education (doing a PhD) was higher. The following recommendations are given: (i) agricultural vocational/professional colleges and agricultural universities should collaborate in teaching students. Also, college and university staff members should cooperate with industries and farmers to develop employment opportunities for graduates in rural areas. (ii) Economic incentives based on higher ages/salaries are very important to attract more qualified specialists to rural areas, hence policymakers should consider this issue in a broader way. Developing extension service organizations can be an option where qualified staff will be needed. Availability of good rural infrastructure for graduates from agricultural universities can encourage students to stay in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iamodp:280329&r=cwa |