• Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

• The transfer of overall responsibility for the reorganization process is proceeding on several fronts at the oblast level. A progress report on the fourth season was prepared for Governor Nemtsov, which he presented in a meeting with the heads of all raion administrations to strengthen their involvement with the reorganization work and to discuss problems such as the transfer of social sphere objects to local budgets. After farm applications had been received, the oblast DOA joined with the project's reorganization team to review and select the current season roster. The oblast working commission has committed itself to reorganize farms in five centrally located raions of the oblast this season. Although the project team has taken the lead in developing the materials to be used in the search for new leaders, it has proposed that this important function be transferred to the RWC member who is supported directly by the oblast budget.
  
  Senior officials of the oblast DOA, together with the local project management and lawyers, have developed a preliminary organizational structure for a proposed institution, Fund ZeRNO, that would oversee reorganization work in the oblast. The proposal, including budgets and foundation documents, has been discussed with Governor Nemtsov, who approved the idea and pledged to find financing for it.
  
  The oblast DOA is an integral part of the process of institutionalizing the communications component at the raion level. All RWC information workers must submit a monthly report to the DOA information specialist, noting their progress on objectives during the past period plus presenting their workplan for the upcoming month (at September's deadline, 22 of the 30 reports due were on time). In October, RWC information workers organized and presented four training seminars for information workers on the Intra-Farm Commissions as well as took active part in six reorganization seminars on first-stage issues. In Sechenovsky raion, the RWC information worker initiated and organized entirely on his own a roundtable discussion for new leaders. This event brought enterprise leaders from reorganized farms together with members of newly applying farms to discuss their experiences in farm reorganization. The organization of this forum will be publicized in the monthly Information Bulletin circulated to other RWCs as another alternative to the new leader meetings developed last season.
  
  Publicity during October to build support for land reform included six articles published in oblast newspapers on such topics as the need for a careful reworking of the Land Code and questions/answers on land reform. The current issue of the Information Bulletin carried an interview with Vice-Governor Lebed on the oblast administration's policy on land reform and farm reorganization. The 23 October radio broadcast of "ZeRNO" (the project's 20-minute program on land reform issues) focused on issues related to finding qualified farm members who can become leaders of new enterprises in the farm reorganization process.
  
  Sergei Ryabov, the oblast DOA information specialist, has been designated to oversee the information responsibilities of farm reorganization work for Nizhny Novgorod's Oblast Working Group. His new duties are varied. He assists with the preparation of the monthly press bulletin and has assumed increasing responsibility for managing the RWC information workers. Mr. Ryabov, together with the IFC/KHF communications team, reviews the monthly report/workplans and evaluates RWC presentations at training seminars related to informational requirements. He travels to new raions to meet and orient the information workers who will be reporting to him.
  
  Revisions of two 1-day training seminars on taxation and accounting were completed in October and forwarded for review by the Oryol project accountants and the Nizhny Novgorod oblast DOA. These seminars are greatly needed by all new farm management after the reorganization process.
  
  The project's legal team has gathered information on examples of land liquidity in Nizhny Novgorod among the 127 farms privatized and reorganized under the federally approved model from November 1993 through September 1996. The team found that the most active enterprises in terms of land and property transactions were those derived from the reorganization of Pravdinskaya (pilot farm) and Verkhovskoye (5/94).
  
  The project's legal team continues to advise on, and help resolve, issues arising on reorganized enterprises while pursuing new opportunities to help institutionalize legal work at the oblast and raion levels. For example, shareholders of the common property fund have sought legal advice on how to secure reimbursement from a peasant farm, Serp i Molot (Sergachsky raion), that is using some of their property. A reorganized enterprise in Sosnovsky raion has received legal assistance in developing new foundation documents and in devising a clearer mechanism for separating property and land shares. In the course of conducting a seminar on post-auction issues in Shatkovsky raion, the legal team met with representatives of the Oblast Arbitration Court, as well as attorneys from the DOA and another raion administration, to discuss legal problems associated with farm reorganization including those arising from invalid reorganization procedures. Such meetings with members of the judicial system increase their awareness about the program and prepare their institutions to better serve farms.
  
  A final report of the analysis completed in July comparing reorganized and non-reorganized farms in Nizhny Novgorod, based on farm production and financial data provided by the local Department of Agriculture, was presented to Governor Nemtsov and the oblast DOA in October. In order to institutionalize economic and social monitoring activities, discussions are under way between the Department of Statistics and the Deputy Head of the oblast DOA. Considerations to be ironed out include differences in the data collection systems.
  
  

Received land plot in exchange for land entitlement	98
Received property in exchange for contribution of entitlement to charter capital	131
Enterprise merger	3
Division of enterprise into new enterprises	1
Purchase of land entitlement by enterprise	20
Purchase of land entitlement by individual shareholder	0
Purchase of land entitlement by third party	2
Buying back of shares by enterprise	203
Purchase by individual of others' shares in charter capital	130
Sale of plots from collectively owned land (hectares)	119.64
Liquidation of enterprise	1

• Rostov Oblast
  
  
  
  

• Despite the lack of support at the oblast level, three additional raions have begun reorganization work with assistance from the IFC/KHF program, bringing 10 new farms to the process and several more expressing interest. In Belo Kalitva, the head of the DOA has promised to provide strong support in conducting.
  
  Over the course of one month this fall, 194 officials from 41 of the 43 raion working commissions in Rostov Oblast have been trained in the project training seminar in farm reorganization (a 42d raion was trained last season). All seminars were held at the Novocherkassk Institute for Raising Qualifications (NIRQ). In order to reach the large number of participants involved, the seminars were organized in two streams, one of which was taught independently by a team of five NIRQ teachers who were trained in the RAMA seminar last July. These five teachers taught nearly 80% of the total seminar hours. The rector of the Institute has expressed interest in continuing the training information campaigns for potential leaders of new enterprises.
  
  The regional field management has continued to meet with Fondovyi Dom [Fund House], one of the institutional homes for the reorganization process. The staff from Fondovyi Dom who participated in the training seminars at the Novocherkassk Institute for Raising Qualifications (see below) will work with a reorganizing farm in Myasnikovsky raion to gain practical, hands-on experience. They have formed a zone team, equipped with a lap-top computer, and will begin work the first week of November. The Director of Fondovyi Dom will send an additional three staff to the last week of training seminars under way at the Institute.
  
  Work on the pilot project for restructuring the DOA in Sholokhovsky raion moved forward with a meeting in October of the commission appointed to oversee development of an extension service. The commission agreed that farm reorganization has long-term objectives and that farm and processing interests should be addressed.
  
  Relations with the oblast press have strengthened throughout the month, beginning with a briefing for the Rostov Association of Agrarian Journalists (RAJA) in early October. At this meeting, program specialists presented, in the form of a case study, the economic preconditions and legislative framework needed for optimal farm reorganization, which was underscored by an eloquent presentation by the head of the Sholokhovsky DOA. Results were immediate. Program specialists were invited to make a similar presentation at the annual conference of raion journalists at end-October, and Gorod N, a Rostov weekly, published an article on the RAJA briefing and reform in the Don region. The head of RAJA and the chief editor of Krestyanin, a popular and progressive weekly covering agricultural issues in Southern Russia, traveled to Nizhny Novgorod in mid-month to observe that oblast's experience with farm reorganization, noting the competence and professionalism of the farm managers and the unflagging support of the oblast administration in reforming agriculture.
  
  Discussion is under way on expanding RAJA into a regional press association for the six southern oblasts: Rostov, Voronezh, Volgograd, Stavropol, Krasnodar, and Astrakhan. RAJA has requested IFC/KHF assistance in organizing a conference to discuss the objectives and structure of such an association. As many as 100 journalists from Rostov and surrounding oblasts are expected to participate in the conference scheduled for late November.
  
  An information campaign has begun in the first raion to request assistance this season, Sholokhovsky. The raion newspaper, Tikhi Don, published an article in early October on the procedure of farm reorganization and is planning a regular column on agrarian reform.
  
  

• Oryol Oblast
  

• A breakthrough was made during October regarding the creation of an oblast working group to oversee and institutionalize the reorganization effort in the oblast. In meetings between representatives of the British Know How Fund and the oblast administration, officials presented a proposal setting up an OWG in the short term, and afterwards, creating a closed joint-stock company (perhaps named "Region Tsentr") founded by the administration, DOA and Chernozem Association. Region Tsentr would carry out the reorganization process in Oryol Oblast and coordinate the reorganization process in the other five member oblasts of the Chernozem Association. A phased approach to funding would split the budget initially between the oblast administration, Region Tsentr and the IFC/KHF program, with all costs borne by the administration and Region Tsentr after several years. As farmers were able to pay for more services, Region Tsentr would become a semi-private, partially self-financing agricultural consulting company. The IFC/KHF delegation was invited to present a counter-proposal for the OWG and regional center for the administration to consider.
  
  The IFC/KHF program has been urged to take the lead in involving the other member oblasts of the Chernozem Association in the creation of the proposed company, Region Tsentr. Project senior field management staff from Oryol and Moscow will be traveling to Voronezh and Belgorod over the next few weeks. In addition, news from the other Chernozem oblasts will be included in Oryol's monthly press bulletin. A meeting of the Chernozem Association will take place in Oryol in early November in order to discuss the proposed center.
  
  Nearly 150 graduating seniors (97 accounting majors and 50 economics majors) completed a course in farm reorganization at the Oryol Agricultural Academy in mid-October. Their training, as Governor Stroyev noted in his address to the Chernozem (Black Earth) Conference in September, was the first such training to be conducted in the university system in Russia. The seminars have been run entirely by teachers who received training at the 2-week seminar co-sponsored by RAMA and the project in July. The Dean of the Oryol Academy has nominated six additional teachers for RAMA training and has announced the school's intention to enlarge the program and possibly offer it to surrounding oblasts.
  
  All 24 raions in Oryol Oblast are currently involved in reorganizing farms, with three RWCs making great strides in taking on responsibility for the work. In both Bolkhov and Znamenskiy raions, the RWC works with minimal assistance from the IFC/KHF team; the Mtsensk RWC travels to all farms with the project team and plans to reorganize every farm in the raion. Oblastwide, 37 priority farms have been selected on the basis of such factors as presence of potential leaders, likelihood of farm division, and ability of new leaders to establish substantial ownership (15-20% of land and property shares). While project specialists concentrate on these farms, the RWCs take primary responsibility for the work on farms in their raions.
  
  The Oryol Institute for Raising Qualifications (OIRQ), met with the regional training team in early October, inviting the team to give a 1-day presentation on the program to the heads of all 24 raion DOAs in the oblast. The feasibility of condensing the 4-day seminar into a 1-day module is currently under discussion by project specialists. The presentation would be scheduled for mid-November.
  
  An analysis of the social spheres on the six pilot farms (1994-95 reorganization season), compared to non-reorganized farms in the same raions, revealed that where there were problems, they were similar across the board. Because most problems stem from lack of local funds, an alternative approach to social sphere maintenance based on self-support at the village administration level has been suggested. Organizing a working group has been proposed to explore such options as the application of local tax funds to the social sphere.
  
  Organization of an oblastwide press conference on land reform issues, to be held in mid-November, has been finalized during October. Journalists from all 24 raions are expected to attend the event.
  
  To help inform the development of post-privatization extension services, field-day presentations were held in September to provide linkage between 3 local agricultural institutes and the 76 farm enterprises previously reorganized throughout the oblast. In response to the wide interest shown, a series of workshops have been organized. The first two, held in Znamenskiy and Dmitrovskiy raions, focused on strategic planning for farming operations. Each workshop has drawn participation from about half of those invited.
  
  Due to several factors, including confusion surrounding its internal reorganization, the DOA has not been able to proceed with developing a mechanism for providing current market data for farm use. Because such data, as well as other farm-related information (changes in laws, tax codes, etc.) and information regarding alternative markets, is sorely needed by the reorganized enterprises, possible alternative organizations such as the Oryol Agricultural Academy are being considered.
  

• Ryazan Oblast
  

• Reorganization work continues in Ryazan Oblast, with the local consulting firm Interservice providing assistance to seven farms in three raions. The first of those farms to complete a distribution meeting, limited liability partnership, "Sheremetevo," divided its land and property between a new limited liability partnership and a production cooperative on 4 October. As part of their strategy to institutionalize the reorganization process, Interservice is providing consultation services to the Mikhailov and Zakharov raion administrations and working jointly with them on their reorganizing farms; the consultants are working directly with intra-farm commissions in Ryazhskiy raion as well. An additional nine farms in five raions have expressed their interest in reorganizing with the assistance of Interservice. All training is conducted on the farms.
  
  Positive coverage continues to regularly appear in the oblast television and radio programs, and well as in oblast and raion newspapers. Interservice's information campaign includes a World Wide Web site (http://insrv.ryazan.ru) carrying news about reorganization in Ryazan.
  
  

• Low - Input Approach
  

• Second Season
  
• Pilot Season Oblasts / Volgograd and Kirov
  

• Second Season
  
  GENERAL. Four new oblasts (Krasnodar, Voronezh, Tula and Samara) have now signed agreements with the IFC/KHF program to undertake farm reorganization with guidance from a Mobile Team. To augment the Moscow-based MT, two new Mobile Teams have been formed. The Rostov-based Mobile Team, composed of three specialists (leader/information manager, economist and lawyer), will work with Krasnodar, while the Oryol MT (leader/senior economist, senior lawyer, junior economist, and junior lawyer) will work with Voronezh. Both teams were drawn entirely from the existing staff roster, testifying to the maturity and depth of the project's Russian specialists in all phases of the farm reorganization work.
  
  In line with lessons learned from the pilot low-input approach last season, the IFC/KHF program has recommended that oblasts commit as many resources as possible to the effort from the beginning. Commitments from the IFC/KHF program include MT consulting, some equipment, and training and communications support.
  
  A 6-day training seminar, held at MOA's Timiryazev Academy in Moscow, has been conducted for 50 representatives from all four new oblasts (see section 2.4). This seminar provided, in addition to the program's core curriculum, sections on computer training and management of the farm reorganization process. A roundtable with oblast, raion and farm officials that had previously gone through the farm reorganization process was provided on the last day. Small gatherings with each oblast's representatives in the evenings allowed MT staff to become better acquainted with their counterparts and to quickly learn specifics of the regions. Both the representatives and the teams felt the seminar had accomplished more than the desired training goals.
  
  Twenty-eight oblast, raion and farm representatives from Tula and Voronezh traveled to Oryol in early October to observe the achievements of more than two years of farm reorganization in the oblast, and to gain a better understanding of the process and of the outcomes that can be expected. Activities included a meeting with senior officials of the oblast DOA (to discuss the past and future of land reform in the oblast), discussions with IFC/KHF project specialists (on management of the process), and visits to reorganized and reorganizing farms. Similar trips are planned over the next few weeks for Krasnodar and Samara.
  
  KRASNODAR. The reorganization work in Krasnodar has proceeded smoothly. The OWG, formed in the Department of the Reform of the Agro-Industrial Complex, has a staff of seven, all of whom have accounting or economics backgrounds. A lawyer has recently been hired to complement them. A document creating the Oblast Monitoring Commission has been submitted to the Governor for signature. Four potential pilot farms have been selected, homogeneous in that each is larger than 10,000 hectares, has a strong technical base and an acceptable debt-asset ratio, and has are no planned divisions to date.
  
  VORONEZH. The Voronezh oblast administration signed an agreement on 9 October to receive assistance in farm reorganization from the IFC/KHF program. The Regional Teaching Center at the local Agricultural Academy has a staff of six economists and will constitute the Oblast Working Group, which will carry out the farm reorganization work. A 5-member Oblast Monitoring Commission has already been formed to oversee the work of the OWG. However, there are serious constraints related to lack of funds (staff have not received salaries for several months). A pilot raion (Verkhemamontovsky) with four farms interested in reorganizing under the model, has been selected.
  
  TULA. The oblast working group was to have been formed from the Center for the Reform of the Agro-Industrial Complex, a strong and independent organization with staff and affiliates in 23 raions. In early October, however, the Center was integrated into the oblast DOA, which in the past was not active in farm reorganization as this work was the responsibility of the Center. The Director of the Center has resigned. However, the MT has met with the head of the oblast DOA and has received assurances that the DOA will support the implementation of the program in the oblast and that the oblast administration will fulfill all commitments that were previously made.
  
  SAMARA. The Samara oblast administration signed an agreement on 30 September to receive assistance in farm reorganization from the IFC/KHF program. Since then, progress has been intermittent. The DOA, which will be taking the lead in the farm reorganization work, has undergone several significant staff changes over the past month, slowing the schedule considerably. The Oblast Monitoring Commission has been formed, and the DOA remains generally very cooperative and supportive of farm reorganization and the program.
  
  

• Pilot Season Oblasts/Volgograd and Kirov
  
  VOLGOGRAD. Mass roll-out of the farm reorganization program is becoming a reality in Volgograd Oblast, with increasingly warm support from the oblast DOA. In a recent meeting with oblast DOA leadership, raion DOA directors reported that 51 farms have expressed an interest in reorganizing under the federally approved model this season. The oblast DOA has further requested that each raion working commission reorganize at least one farm before the beginning of the spring planting in March/April 1997. According to Mobile Team assessments, to add any more farms this season would require greater RWC involvement, as the OWG staff of 12 is currently strained to cover the 23 priority farms being assisted. All the RWCs have been trained during the summer, and it is hoped they will become actively interested in the program. In the meantime, the OWG is concentrating on raions with active RWCs.
  
  The oblast DOA's first press conference-organized by the OWG, run by the head of the oblast DOA, and fully devoted to issues of farm reorganization-took place on 21 October with over 40 journalists from the national and oblast press in attendance. Keynote speakers at the event were the head of the oblast DOA and the project's senior agrarian theorist. The following day, six journalists from the national press visited one of the farms reorganized last season, Razvet.
  
  KIROV. The gubernatorial elections in mid-October saw the incumbent, Vasily Desyatnikov, with whom the project had an excellent rapport, replaced by Vladimir Sergeyenko, the Communist candidate. It is too early to tell what effect the changeover will have on the project, but it may complicate the issue of transferring OWG costs onto the oblast budget. The Mobile Team is currently making an effort to arrange a meeting with Mr. Sergeyenko.
  
  Although farm reorganization work is continuing at a slower pace because of funding constraints, the Kirov OWG continues to prove its effectiveness. Three training seminars were conducted very professionally and efficiently in October, with a total of 113 farm officials (19 farms), 18 RWC officials (2 raions), and 5 teachers from local agricultural institute in attendance. For the farm reorganization work, the OWG has split into three teams to visit interested farms, conduct information campaigns and prepare for the general meetings. More than 20 farms have expressed interest in reorganizing under the federally approved model this season.
  
  

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