Place :
Agrosup Dijon
26 B^d du D^r Petitjean – BP 87999
21079 DIJON Cedex

Over twenty years have passed since the fall of the Wall and the beginning of the process called "Transition" in Central and Eastern Europe Countries (CEEC). Two major events marked this historical episode from the beginning : the transition toward democratic systems, and the adoption of a free market system in the perspective of a liberal politico-economic model. As an immediate consequence of these rapid developments and of the breakdown of all major economic and political balance of the East, the initial dramatic recession of the 90s hit all sectors in Eastern countries. This situation was particularly reflected by the highest unemployment rates ever achieved, especially in rural areas away from major urban or trans-border employment areas.

Then, in a context of gradual recovery, a significant proportion of countries in Central and Eastern Europe entered the double pre-accession and accession steps to European Union during the beginning of the 2000s. The aim was to reach and appropriate the acquis communautaire in the fields of agriculture : management of institutional structures, control systems (sanitary for all food chains, but also administrative and financial), markets organizations, rural and industrial infrastructure...

These evolutionary phases were accompanied by a severe diagnosis when focusing on the agricultural and rural sector in the East. Depending on the country, and taking as a reference the presented-as-positive trajectory of modernization of agriculture in West-European from the late 40’s to 70’s. The need for urgent reform was emphasized whilst considering the specificities of the Eastern farming sector : in some regions, late modernization and low labor productivity of small family structures, in a context where agriculture appears as a survival strategy face to general crisis ; in some other regions, low technical performance and management problems in macro-cooperatives or State farms .Everywhere was observed the need and difficulty of implementing land reforms to restore private agricultural property, presented as necessary to establish trade at parity with Western European countries.

In this context, different processes were first predicted. Structurally, with significant variations across countries, macro-state farms or cooperatives, often integrated into food complexes, were initially expected to give way to private family-like farming systems oriented toward technical development, productive specialization, capital intensity and market-orientation of the production. This horizon of convergence also concerned small subsistence or semi-subsistence family farms, which were expected to give way to larger family farms perceived a priori as more efficient. Economically, the early stages of market opening drove western countries to fear the new competition with Eastern agricultural products, potentially cheaper because of lower production costs.

The return on these twenty years of evolution invites us to ask different questions :

 What progress of developments in the Eastern countries over the past two decades ? Did the evolutionary models initially proposed prove adequate, beyond the teleological character of the notion of "transition" used to describe the on-going processes ? How does the close observation of empirical facts - economic, political, social, etc - invite us to renew the understanding of trends and of the contemporary situation ?

 How to characterize these twenty years of agricultural and rural transformation in the CEECs : what do we learn today when looking back at this period of history, regarding forms of land property and farms structures, the characteristics of markets and the renewal of the elites and institutions ? Ultimately, how to describe the specific trajectory of each of these countries ?

 Are the phenomena of concentration of land property and of speculation really at work ? Are there also strategies of resistance to these phenomena, both private and public ? What are the results of such opposite dynamics ?

 What are the contemporary social conditions of work in agriculture and in rural areas ? Again, did the concentration phenomena announced really occurred ? In a context where migration opportunities have profoundly altered the forms of rural family-like multi- activities, what are today the dynamics at work, not only in terms of strategies for the choice of professional activities, but also of economic transfers ? What are the structural effects in the Eastern regions dominated by micro-structures ?

 Finally, what are the new lessons of this current structural modernization process, after the implementation of supports from the two pillars of the CAP ? What are the technical, structural and economical models now at work, at the scale of both the agricultural production sector and of the upstream and downstream sectors ? How do different types and sizes of farms use this funding ? How are power relationships consequently modified, when considering market equilibrium, struggles for access to land, or the development of diversified rural activities ?

 For more informations et see the program :