Despite recent decreases in agricultural production in Ukraine, the nation's policymakers and Western economic experts agree that the future economic growth of Ukraine will depend on the efficiency of its agriculture. The experts also agree that this growth can only be achieved if Ukraine can manage to resolve the current problems in its agro-industrial sector to bridge the gap between potential and performance.
The nature of those problems and the strategies that might help overcome them will be the topic of an international conference titled "Attaining Ukraine's Agro-Industrial Potential,." which will be held on campus Friday and Saturday, April 11 and 12. The conference, which will be simultaneously translated in Ukrainian and English, will be held 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. both days in the Luce Hall auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave. It is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies and the Council on Russian and East European Studies.
Academic and policy experts in the field of agriculture, as well as prominent representatives of Ukrainian and international agribusiness, will participate in the conference. Among the featured speakers will be Yuri Shcherbak, ambassador of Ukraine to the United States; Petro Sabluk, director of the Institute of Agrarian Economics and former vice-prime minister of Ukraine; Anatoliy Danilenko, head of the Agro-Industrial Committee in the Ukrainian Department of Land Resources and Social Development; representatives from the World Bank; and noted scholars from universities throughout the world.
Among the topics that these participants will discuss are land reform and privatization, technology policy and the role of agricultural science, and infrastructure of the agro-industrial sector in Ukraine. Highlighting the conference will be a keynote address on Friday titled "Agricultural Performance and Potential in the Planned Economies: Historical Perspective" by D. Gale Johnson of the University of Chicago.
Support for "Attaining Ukraine's Agro-Industrial Potential" has been provided by the Chopivsky Family Foundation, the AGCO Corporation and The Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs. For more information and a complete schedule, call Edith Kufta or Marina Yamburenko at the Council on Russian and East European Studies, 432-3423; or Kathleen Rossetti or Haynie Wheeler at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 432-3410.