185 



STATEMENT, S. R. Johnson Pige 5 



House Subcomittg^ on Foreign Agriculturt Mid Hunger Vfarcli 31. 1993 



a^businesset and hAped oxir counterparts develop ideas on how agricultural science and 

 economic concepu on the functioning of market economics can be put into practice. In 

 short, the Agribusiness Centers can help to more fully engage the FSU scientific and 

 educational community in the transition and economic reforms. 



• Alternative types of training are necessary to assist in the economic reform. Our 

 Agribustness Centers used one-week specialized short courses. A broader training program 

 reaching the agricultural technical schools and including intensive, longer term training of 

 practitioners would add to the effectiveness of the attisranrr. This could be followed up 

 with on-the-job forms of training or assistance. Concepts of private enterprise and markets 

 take time to comprehend and must be adapted to the ideal institutional and cultural 

 setting. 



• The scope of the training at the Agribusiness Centers should be expanded. In 1992, we 

 concentrated on &rm production. But there are many, perh;^ more complicated, 

 problems in tiie processing and distribution system. Training and demonstrations in these 

 areas should be inrh«l<<d in the Agribusiness Centers. 



• In the iarm input simply sector and in the food processing and diitribation there are 

 major problems with monopoly. The anrimonopoly policy that will likely develop for 

 Russia and the other states of the FSU will likely rely on disdpline firom iniemational 

 markets and new firms, not on the break up of large existing firms. Credit and loan 

 guarantee* could encourage entry into these monopoly markeu and at the s»me time give 

 the U.S. firms an edge in the new markets and commercial opportunities atsnriatcd with 

 the reforms in the FSU. These credit and loan guarantees should be nude available in such 

 a way that small- and medium-sized agribusinesses in the U.S. have access to them, not 

 just the multinational corporadons. 



• Assistance with die design of policies for operating market economics and for 

 privatizadon is badly needed. Many of the problems with the reforms are due to ill- 

 defined or miigniH/iH policies and to uncertainty about the course of the policy and 

 institutional rtiangg« that will ah^>e the transition. Hif^-levd, continuous support of 

 analysis for policy and institutional change should be I'ndndfH in the T<yhnif«1 asai stance 

 effort. This support should be dosely linked with a program to improve the policy 

 analysis and educational capacities in the nujor scientific institutes and in agricultunl 

 univertities. An added benefit of this aspect of the policy aaiff^nre effort would be that it 

 could help the assodated institutions with their own transiiions and ■«««»«»'« diem as 



