FROM THE CABINET OF MINISTERS: Implementing land reform (01/03/93)

FROM THE CABINET OF MINISTERS

Implementing land reform

by Zenovij Tkachuk
Exclusive to The Ukrainian Weekly

Economic reform in the countryside provides the basis for total economic reform in Ukraine. Its proper solution in the near future will determine the socio-economic climate in Ukrainian society and, in perspective, the future of the Ukrainian state.

Until this time what was absent was a modern de-ideologized program of land reform.

In this century, the only effective economic reform program that took place on Ukrainian soil, and which in a few decades changed the face of the country, was instituted by Pyotr Stolypin and based on land reform. These reforms addressed the categorical breakdown of an inefficient communal agricultural production system which resembled our contemporary kolhospy (collective farms) and radhospy (state farms) and transferred the individual interests of people to private farm production.

This question has also become a central point of a political struggle in our Supreme Council. After three years of discussion and debate, agricultural reform in Ukraine has finally begun. On December 23, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, under the direction of Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma, issued a government decree "On Privatization of Land Plots" removing restrictions in the laws concerning private property on land. For Ukraine, a country with a long and rich agrarian history, private ownership of land is the cornerstone of this reform.

The concept of private property was proclaimed earlier this year by the Supreme Council in the Land Code of Ukraine (ironically, the words "private property" appear only in the title and nowhere else in the article), but a simultaneously adopted six-year moratorium placed on the sale of land seriously restricted the right of private property on land. Latter was the first artificial obstacle that was removed by the decree. In fact, the decree opens up the land market, which was so demonstratively declared earlier, but nonexistent until now.

Ukrainians will not be placated by this single step. It is obvious to them that the decree itself will not solve the problems heaped on them by decades of an improper mode of production and colonial status. Subsequently, a number of things needs to be addressed in order for this and following decrees to be implemented quickly and effectively.

First, the psychology of collectivism is something that many people both within and outside the government need to overcome.

Second, trust in the government's belt-tightening measures is an issue of even greater urgency within a country as economically distressed as Ukraine.

Thirdly, the infrastructure must be improved and the distribution system made more efficient. Each party involved understands that agricultural reform is a difficult and long-term process, which needs continuous and diligent attention, as well as a coordinated effort between all the branches of power.

Of course, this decree is not a complete foundation for the development of a land market, but it gives the possibility for future resolute steps. The absence of private ownership of land was the principal handicap that hindered agricultural reforms. Certain questions, such as fair and equal distribution of land and the potential monopolization by third parties, still need to be addressed.

Unlike Article 6 of the Land Code of Ukraine, which only declares private ownership of land, Article 1 of the decree transfers to Ukrainian citizens private ownership of the plots of land near their homes, as well as the plots given to them earlier for planting, building houses, cottages and garages. This concerns plots of land which are not greater than the norm set by the Land Code. For rural dwellers the norm is equal to 0.6 hectares, and for city dwellers - 0.15 hectares.

Article 2 of the decree states that the right of private property is to be confirmed by each corresponding regional council of People's Deputies. Plots of land ownership is to be bestowed to citizens by State Act.

Article 3 removes the above-mentioned six-year restriction on selling a plot of land, and fully states private property on land.

Various interests were involved in cobbling this decree together, including the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Economics, the State Committee on Land Resources, the State Property Fund and the Academy of Agrarian Sciences. At times, these interests were in disagreement on the myriad legal issues that would involve the state transferring land to individuals.

In December, an agreement was signed between the Agricultural Institute of Canada and the Ukrainian government. This agreement will place Canadian agricultural specialists in Ukraine as early as February of 1993. The decree hopes to finish implementing these privatization measures as early as the spring of 1993, to coincide with the sowing and planting season.

Ukraine is actively seeking the help of Western experts in agriculture to improve and modernize farming technology and rural infrastructure, as well as advice on the best way to sell its commodities on the world market.

Consulting Western experts is only one example of a clean break with a past that compromised itself and restrained Ukraine from becoming a leading agriculture-exporting country. Ukraine, known for its world famous black earth (chornozem), has the unique opportunity to continue feeding not only itself, but to once again become the breadbasket of Europe and possibly the world.

With the world as our witness, Ukrainians are burning those bridges which connected them with a dark period of landlessness. There is no turning back. The rural worker will no longer be without rights, like a cog in a spiritless state machine. Finally, the farmer will receive the land promised to him 70 years ago by the Bolsheviks, and from it the freedom of choice and actions, as well as regaining his dignity after years of humiliation.

Zenovij Tkachuk is an advisor to Ukrainian Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma.

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