Preface

This manuscript was prepared while the author, Dr. Vitaly Zinovchuk, was on an eight-month Fulbright Research Scholar program at North Dakota State University. Dr. Zinovchuk is Chairman of Department of Management and Agribusiness at the State Academy of Agriculture and Ecology of Ukraine in Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

A striking feature of the manuscript is Dr. Zinovchuk's description of Ukraine's situation as an incredible disparity between potential and realization. The paradoxical conditions including pollution, poverty, inflation and other problems associated with a dysfunctional command economy and the resultant vacuum linked with the collapse of that system is contrasted with the natural endowment of the best soils in Europe and a relatively well-educated and willing population. All that is needed is the creation of a structure to unleash the creative power and incentives of the populace.

Dr. Zinovchuk's supreme hope is to contribute to the creation of just such a structure to provide for Ukraine a plentiful and desirable food supply, with a rural population sharing in economic prosperity and free from the shackles of state control to develop independence and self-reliance. His objective is to adapt the desirable features of market economy including incentives of private property and adoption of appropriate technology and the distribution of benefits according to contribution. His ideals for restructuring are balanced with a healthy respect for what is doable, both institutionally and time-wise. A concern for social needs and a respect for deeply imbedded historical linkages also pervades his analysis and recommendations.

A fresh historical perspective of Ukrainian agriculture provides a necessary back-drop and basis from which his model is launched. He then characterizes the salient features of American farm cooperatives as they relate to the Ukrainian situation, drawing a sharp distinction between what he calls pseudo-cooperatives of the dysfunctional communist regime and the real cooperatives of market economies such as those in the USA. Lessons drawn from these two sections are woven into the fabric of his recommendations or model for market transformation of Ukrainian agriculture with cooperatives playing a central role.

On a personal note Dr. Zinovchuk has been a most focused-single minded visiting scholar. He took advantage of opportunities for interstate travel to become familiar with the variety of life in the USA, gave seminars and cooperated with the media, but only up to a point. Beyond that point he studiously avoided any distractions from his self-imposed goal of completing this manuscript in the time allotted. This focused attention to the manuscript and loyalty to Ukraine was almost boundless. It has been a delight for our faculty to work and associate with Dr. Zinovchuk and understand more about Ukraine's struggles and potential. We wish him and his country success in their efforts in achieving the laudable goals he has set forth.

David W. Cobia
Director, Quentin Burdick Center for Cooperatives and
Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, North Dakota State University

May 1, 1995