Twenty years ago, a visit like ours to Slovakia would not have been possible. Under communist rule, our tour guide, Miroslav, today told delegates to the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ (IFAJ) pretour that the requirements would have been so stringent that it would have been difficult – if not impossible – for delegates from 16 countries to come together to tour farms and talk shop. But that is exactly what our tour today was all about.
One of the key points of today’s learnings was how farmers in Slovakia have adapted to life after communism.
But first a bit of background. In 1948, a communist government took over this small nation, despite the fact that the Slovakian people didn’t want it. Farmers had their land confiscated and became employees of the state. That system lasted for 40 years – by which time most working farmers had retired and their children had grown up knowing nothing except agriculture under a communist regime.
Communist rule ended in 1989 and Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia in 1992. These two momentous events have completely changed the lives of this country’s 5.3 million inhabitants and the change is still happening. Miroslav described the first few years as being “chaos” and said that the country is still shaping itself as people learn to trust and work with each other under a free enterprise system.
At the end of communism, farmers who could prove that they had owned land prior to the 1948 confiscation had their property returned to them. Others, who had spent years working on state farms were given shares in the properties. Today, there are many of these “collective” farms still in place. It’s a complicated system, though. A collective farm can have up to 5,000 different owners each receiving a different share of the profits, depending on the size of their ownership.
Under the state farm system, the average farm size had been 4,000 to 5,000 hectares. Now, the average farm is about 800 hectares and the average farm worker makes 550 Euros per month (A Euro is about $1.60 Canadian).
Today, we met two farm managers who worked under both systems and their comments were interesting. You would expect them to highly favour private enterprise. And, while they are happy with the new system, their answers came with qualifications.
Jozef Puvak (shown in the centre of this photo talking to journalists about his cattle) has been chairman of a large dairy, swine and cash crop operation for 23 years – since he was 33 years of age. During communism, he noted that farm workers were used to working on collective farms where they had constant salaries and less responsibilities. They also had specialized tasks – some would manage field work while others, as an example, worked specifically caring for livestock. Said Jozef, “Before, it was all organized by the state. We were told how much milk and meat we had to produce. There was no responsibility.”
At the end of communism, however, farmers had to become jacks of all trades and, if they hadn’t been raised knowing how to do specific tasks, it was often difficult to gain the now-needed expertise.
In some instances, farmers have chosen to continue working together under a collective system. In Jozef’s case, farmers from three villages (150 farm owners) continue to share a farm operation of 1,300 hectares of crops, 550 dairy cows and 400 sows. Their farming model has proved to be a successful one. The 60 full time employees are paid much better than the national average – about 12,000 Euros each year. As chair, Jozef is re-elected by the farm owners every five years and everyone seems happy with the system.
For those of us raised in a democracy, the thought that farmers could look back fondly on some aspects of a communist regime was a surprising one. We expect more surprises as we continue to learn in the days to come.
Kelly Daynard is Program Manager for the Ontario Farm Animal Council. Her trip to the 2008 IFAJ conference is being sponsored by Monsanto and the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation.
