negotiating

One of the big problems in Moldova is the division of land - it's split up in tiny plots spread out over a large amount of space. For example, one farmer might have: 1 acre of arable land, .25 acre of orchard, and .3 acre of grapes but all split up, one being 9 miles from the other. The effect on efficiency is pretty clear. Now, as the better farmers slowly build up land (either buying it or renting it) there is a constant process of negotiating going on. However, because of the condition of rural Moldova, taking land from a townperson is like opening the mouth of a dog with lockjaw. Even though most arable land produces corn or wheat which, in the final analysis, bring no income whatsoever (in fact, they often cost more than they return), people see land as the only thing they actually have and their only source of income (even if it's also their greatest source of payments, let alone headaches).

The other day I was with a local vegetable farmer that I work with while he was negotiating to rent some land near his. The land was owned by a young girl who inherited it, probably from a dead relative, and had no knowledge or real interest in working it. In any case, she was just about to start seeding it with corn (using a hand pulled seeder) when me and Victor (my farmer friend) walked up to her and made the offer. He said "I'll give you 33% of the estimate value of the corn you would get off of this field (paid in corn), I'll pay for all of the mechanical operations necessary, and you don't have to do anything, if I can use your land to plant watermelon". It was a pretty good offer - the going value for rent here is 25% of the yield from the field payed in produse. He was offering 33 percent, PLUS he way overestimated their yeilds so the real sum was much higher.

The girl stood with her hand on her hip and blinked her eyes, stared off into the distance, and repeated "I don't know, I've never done this sort of thing... I just don't know". Looking at this girl you couldn't help wondering "what in the hell do you want this land for?". As she leaned against the manual planter, you could tell that she had no interest in ever actually producing something for sale, or even producing for herself in any sort of efficient manner. Neither did she really care. Yet she continued, year after year, to put things in the ground, watch them come up, carry them home so she could feed her chickens. If she had sat down for 2 seconds to wonder if it was really worth it (or if buying the corn from the market would be cheaper) she still wouldn't really REALIZE what she was doing was more of a knee jerk reflex than a conscious decision.

After about an hour, her relatives finally started saying "if it was my land, I'd do it", but she continued to repeat "I don't know" as if the issue would resolve itself. In the end, Victor converted the value in corn to sacks of wheat and added a little more to make the deal final.

The point is, land is not simply capital. Land has a special connection with people, and as much as we'd like to consolidate it and improve rural economies, people will be unwilling to part with the little bit that they have. I do believe in consolidation, but we always have to offer people alternatives to working land, that is jobs, and if they are untrained, training.

For those of you thinking "why can't that girl use that land as she wants? who are you to say that she's using it inefficiently? it's hers, and she can live as she wants!". Well, that's obviously true. But the questions is what makes up a healthy rural town, and more basically, what makes up a healthy society? Peasant farming might look ok to westerners who've never done it and have never seen it, and the farming itself is not fundamentally a problem. The problem is the type of society that results from it. It tends to be closed, very traditional and conservative, generally slow to innovate, and socially and scientifically backwards. You may think this doesn't matter, and maybe your right. But I think that choosing the path that leads to the greatest mental development of man and progressing his understanding of the world is the best path. If you think that you can create a lifestyle based around simple farming that promotes mental development, growth, innovation, spirituality, etc. go right ahead. But don't think that this type of lifestyle represents the majority of poor rural areas in the world, because it doesn't. That's a big western myth created by people who live in suburbs and dream about peaceful lives as buddhist monks living the "simple life". End rant.

There is going to be a lot more negotiating in Moldova until land becomes usable and efficient and a crucial part of a healthy rural economy. I just hope at the same time we can somehow transfer those currently in a peasant-like lifestyle to have other opportunities to generate income.