Agricultural Staticulation

Staticulation is a manipulation of statistics (ht Darrel Huff). Here is an example. Since 2009 production of corn has doubled in Ukraine. The output of corn increased from 10.5 to 21 mln. tons between 2009 and 2012. Great news! It looks like "free market" economy allocated resource efficiently in Ukraine. 

Wait a sec. The corn yield, however, declined slightly from 5 to 4.8 tons per hectare. If the corn yield declines, the total output of corn must decline too, right? Yes, unless the harvested area increases enough to offset the decrease in the crop yield. Indeed, the harvested area has also doubled since 2009. The harvested area increased from 2.1 to 4.4 mln. hectares. Something tells me that farmers foregoing the conventional crop rotation in Ukraine. To double the cropland area for corn, you need to decrease the harvested area of other crops. Otherwise, where did the additional 2.3 mln of arable land come from? 

Ukraine’s Land Reform in Faces

I conducted a fieldwork in Ukraine between two summers of 2007 & 2008. It's approved by the Human Subject Review Board (HSRB) at George Mason University. Every social scientist has to go through HSRB if your fieldwork involves interviews with human subjects (that's how HSRB calls people).

Why did I conduct fieldwork in Ukraine? First, I am very interested in the aftermath of Ukraine's privatization and its unintended consequences for Ukrainians. I've also noticed that Ukraine has developed a very interesting mix of socialist-capitalist property rights system since its breakaway from the FSU. Second, I strongly believe that a quality of fieldwork improves significantly when you understand indigenous culture and speak indigenous language (in case of Ukraine, you have to speak both Russian and Ukrainian or their mixed version Surzhyk). Otherwise, you'll be either brushed off for cultural ignorance or lost in translation. I'll post more about my fieldwork soon. But now I'd like to invite you to check out a photo report about my fieldwork because I honestly believe that one picture is worth ten thousand words.