While all Central and East European countries have reformed their relationships between agriculture and the state, this process has been particularly fraught in Moldova. The post-Soviet era has witnessed a sustained conflict between communists, agrarian nationalists, and economic liberals over the reform of state and collective farms. However, attempts to enact agrarian nationalist and neoliberal visions of agriculture in Moldova have largely failed. Instead, reforms have created a subsistence-based agricultural sector with a fragmented pattern of land management and have not dealt with trade reorientation. Collective farm managers, while portrayed as impediments to efficiency, private sector agriculture prior to decollectivisation, have become the main agents of much-needed land consolidation after reform. The plans for decollectivisation, pioneered by international agencies, placed too little emphasis on creating institutions to inhibit excessive fragmentation as part of the reform process in itself and are only now facing these problems after the dramatic rise in subsistence production.
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38. In 2000, part of the decline was due to adverse weather conditions (drought).
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39. Prior to decollectivisation, the Moldovan Department of Statistics surveyed all state and collective farms. A 10 percent sample of peasant farms was also taken, recording the size of crop areas, yields, and gross margins. The coverage of new private farms is much weaker. For a discussion, see Elena P. Orlova, “Adaptation of Agricultural Statistics to Structural Changes and New Information Needs in Transition” (Paper presented to the Sixth IWG.AGRI Seminar on Agricultural Statistics, St. Petersburg, 29 June-3 July, 1998).
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