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Economist Helps Former East German Farmers Adjust to "New Thinking"

AUBURN, MARCH 17, 2000---Transforming East German farming operations from lumbering communist dinosaurs into limber capitalist cheetahs hasn’t been easy for private farmers in the former communist countries of eastern Europe.

No one understands this better than George Young, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System agricultural economist. Young recently was recognized by former East German producers for his work in helping them adjust to the new demands of the free market.

Several years after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the dean of Auburn University’s College of Agriculture asked Young to organize an exchange program with the Havelland Farmers Association, a farmers cooperative organized by newly private producers in Brandenburg state.

Young was well equipped for the role. In 1991, he helped the Polish Ministry of Agriculture redesign its Extension System to adapt to the new market economy. He also worked with several other former communist countries.

"Many of the farmers I worked with in former East Germany are relatively young people with higher-education training in farming," Young says. "When the wall came down in 1989, they decided to stay in farming and adapt to the new post-communist system."

When East Germany was absorbed into West Germany in 1991, collective and state farms were liquidated and returned to former owners or sold or rented to new private farmers.

As it turned out, many of these newly privatized farms ended up with large holdings averaging about 1,500 acres. This placed them at a huge disadvantage with their counterparts in former West Germany, whose holdings average only about 58 acres.

"There is tremendous political conflict between the two groups because government policy is geared toward small farmers," Young says. "As the former East Germans see it, their challenge is to build political clout and representation to ensure the government listens to their needs."

Under the circumstances, Young thought it would be a good idea to bring a delegation of East German farmers to Alabama to gain firsthand knowledge how big and small producers influence political representatives.

From the standpoint of size, Alabama farming closely resembles former East Germany. The biggest Alabama farms average 1,000 acres while the smallest – operated mostly by part-time farmers – are about 40 acres.

One of his first steps was to enlist the help of German-born Auburn University Agronomy and Soils Professor Edzard van Santen, whose command of German has greatly enhanced work with the former East Germans. Another key player has been the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Since 1995, 114 former East German producers and agricultural leaders have visited Alabama, while 87 of their Alabama counterparts have visited the German’s native state of Brandenburg.

From the beginning, Young's been responsible for organizing every aspect of the visits including tours of Alabama farms and face-to-face visits with land-grant university educators and commodity leaders.

Young is especially pleased with how much Alabama farmers have gained from the visits.

"For Alabama farmers, it’s not only been the exposure to a different culture," Young says. "They’ve also discovered some enormous economic opportunities through the visits. After all, we live in a highly global economy."

For their part, the Germans have gained a better grasp of the "new thinking" associated with the free market.

"Since they’ve begun visiting Alabama, these farmers have gotten a far better understanding of the importance of cash flow within a market economy," Young says. "In Alabama, you don’t build a structure to last 200 years if it can’t be paid for in 5 or 10 years – a concept that is entirely new to the former East Germans.

"This has been an enormous insight for them. After all, for the first time, they’re paying for capital improvements with their own money. This is an entirely different way of thinking than in the past when the government paid for it."

For his help in organizing these study tours, Young recently was awarded an honorary seat on the Board of Directors of the Havelland Farmers Association, the Brandenburg state farmers cooperative through which the exchange tours are coordinated.

Three others were awarded honorary seats: Auburn University College of Agriculture faculty members Richard Guthrie and Edzard van Santen and Jimmy Carlisle of the Alabama Farmers Federation.

In addition to the contacts in former East Germany and Poland, Young has helped organize study tours with Hungary’s Panon Agricultural University, the oldest institution of its kind in the world.

SOURCE: DR. GEORGE YOUNG, Extension Agricultural Economist, Alabama Cooperative Extension System (334) 844-3513