| Travelling through former
Soviet countries can never be described as dull. Challenging maybe —
exhilarating, thought-provoking, exciting and diverse certainly, tiring
occasionally — but never dull. Just ask any of the 46 intrepid
travellers on the recent 2003 Australian Grain/Cottongrower Farm Study
Tour. For more than three weeks this ‘premium selection’
of grain and cotton industry representatives took it upon themselves
to peek boldly behind the old iron curtain and gauge for themselves
what made the agricultures in the region tick — or not tick.
The tour embraced Turkey, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and Croatia.
Rumour has it we were actually in Bosnia–Hercegovina as well —
but only for about the time it takes to drink a customary vodka shooter
with our new found farming friends in that part of the world.
Most of the touring party have lived the better part of their lives
in the Cold War era (this is not strictly true as there were one or
two people during some of the more hectic stages of the tour, who claimed
closer association with WWI).
After a lifetime of highly censored and selective news reports, a steady
diet of John Le Carre novels, Rambo and James Bond movies, and stories
of grain gluts, famines and other purges, it is no surprise that the
former Soviet Union countries would hold so much collective intrigue
for a group trying to make a living out of agriculture on the opposite
side of the world.
I’m sure there were many more questions raised than answered on
the tour but one thing is abundantly clear. The natural resources of
the region in terms of soils, water supply and rainfall, are in such
quantity and quality that they’re not really limiting factors
in agricultural production.
Given the right management, these resources can produce anything —
which we occasionally saw. But we saw many more examples of an inefficient
use of soil, water and climate leading to under-performing crops. This
is not to criticise the many individual farmers and researchers we were
very fortunate to meet on our travels.
Invariably our hosts were dedicated, hard-working and wonderfully hospitable
agriculturalists trying to work within the remnants of a failed political
system called Soviet communism.
The left-over and very dated infrastructure, land tenure system and
machinery is more than enough impediment to efficient agricultural production.
But add to that the continuation of heavy government involvement in
all facets of agriculture, from input costs through to product pricing,
and you’ve got a difficult system to work with.
In future issues we will explore in more detail some of the highlights
and mysteries of this intriguing part of the world.
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