The impact of land reform on rural household incomes in Transcaucasia

An agricultural economist specializing in the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) assesses changes in land use and their impact on rural incomes in Armenia. Georgia. and Azerbaijan. The paper compares developments in these countries with core CIS (Russia, Ukraine) and Central Asian states of the FSU. The author's premise- that agricultural growth, and hence higher well-being of the rural population are positively linked to individualization of farming structure and commercialization- is tested on the basis of survey results linking increases in farm size with higher rural incomes and accelerated sales of farm products.