Thirty years of land reform (1991–2021)

Abstract

This study analyzes the change in the structure of agricultural land use over the 30 years of land reform in Kazakhstan (from 1991 to 2020). The land reform was aimed at the creation of various forms of management, which created the necessary organizational, economic and social conditions for the development of the agricultural land market. However, it has led to a significant concentration of land in hands of some land owners. To confirm this hypothesis, comparative data collected in Kazakhstan for thirty years were used, starting from the period before the land reform (1991) and up to 2021. A new phenomenon for the Kazakh agricultural economy - peasant and farm enterprises represent an ever-increasing part of agricultural land use. As a result of the reforms, 61.7% of all agricultural land was transferred to peasant and farm usage. The goals of the land reform were to increase the efficiency of land use, create conditions for increasing the social, investment and productive potential of land, turning it into a powerful independent factor in economic growth. These goals were achieved in the process of land reform through a dramatic shift from the predominance of large-scale agricultural holdings (collective and state farms) to individual or family farming based on peasants and farmers. For the period from 1991 to 2020, the number of peasant farms increased by 87 times, and their area by 41 times, and in subsequent years these figures remained at a high level.