While activists to Ukraine’s east decry Big Ag and romanticize about the superiority of small, inefficient farms, Kiev’s new law will enable the buying and selling of farmland beginning 1 July. The government hopes that a well-functioning land market will lead toward bigger, more efficient farming and bolster investment. Smaller, less efficient farms result in Ukraine’s yields being a third less than the U.S. in corn and a quarter less than in the EU next door.  The buying and selling of land were prohibited in 2001 and with farmers limited to leasing smaller lots, the number of agricultural workers per hectare has risen rather than fallen, hurting improvements in total factor productivity. Opponents fear that foreig...

TAGS – Black Sea, Macroeconomics