Agriculture in Belarus

Agriculture is an important sector of the Belarusian economy. In 2023, it employed 6.9% of the workforce, generated 7.2% of GDP. In 2020, it was responsible for 19.9% of exports.^[a]

It is mostly conducted by large-scale agricultural organizations that are heavily subsidized by the state, with minimal input from individual farmers. It can be divided into two segments: livestock and crops, which generate roughly equal production.

The main produce of Belarusian agriculture are milk, sugar beet, potatoes, wheat, barley, and rapeseed. Its main agricultural exports are rapeseed, beef, poultry and milk.

Belarus has been characterized by some as a slow land reformer compared to other CIS countries.^[3]

There have been no major shifts in the number of animals between collective and family farms since independence in 1995: the family farm sector (mainly household plots) controlled 11%–16% of the total cattle herd and 30%–40% of the number of pigs between 1980 and 2005. Poultry, on the other hand, has become concentrated to a greater extent in collective farms, with the share of family farms dropping from more than 40% in the 1980s to less than 30% since 1995.^[4]

The share of agriculture in GDP declined from 11.6% in 2000 to 7.4% in 2007,^[5] while the share of agriculture in total employment dropped from 14.1% to 9.9% over the same period.^[6] The decrease in agricultural employment is a long-term trend and back in the early 1990s agriculture's share was as high as 19% of the number of employed.^[7] The decrease of agricultural labor parallels the general urbanization trends, as the share of rural population in Belarus steadily declines over time.

There are three types of entities in Belarus involved in agricultural activities: household plots, which are relatively small pieces of land attached to private households; private farms, which are small business entities engaged in agricultural production; and large-scale agricultural organizations.^[10] Agricultural land in Belarus is state-owned and can only be rented.^[11]

As of 2023,1,485 agricultural organizations were in operation.^[12] These organizations controlled 89.8% of agricultural land and generated 78.2% of all agricultural output.^[13] Roughly a third of them were privately owned, 40% had shared ownership with the government, and the remainder were under government control.^[14]

There were 3,822^[15] private farms, which controlled 4.0% of the land and generated 2.9% of the output.^[13] On average, each private farm had three workers. They have better financial outcomes than agricultural organizations, showing a profitability of 20.8% compared to an overall average of 6.4%.^[15][16] Household plots controlled 5.0%^[b] of the land and were responsible for 18.9% of the output,^[13] including 37.7% of the total crop output.^[17][c]

In terms of regional distribution, 26.2% of the value was produced in the Minsk region, while 40.7% came from the Western regions of Brest and Grodno,^[17] where the soil is, on average, more fertile.^[20]

Every five years since 1995, Belarus has launched programs to boost its agricultural sector, with the goal of ensuring food security and generating export revenue.^[21][22] In 2008, Belarus's Vice Prime Minister claimed that Belarusian agriculture was 60% subsidized, compared to 15-30% globally.^[23] In 2011, Alexander Lukashenko stated that the amount of subsidies to the sector in the 2000s totaled $40 billion and that they should be lowered.^[24] The goal was subsequently achieved, and by the mid-2010s, subsidies amounted to 20-30% of agricultural output, a figure consistent with EU levels.^[25]

These subsidies are provided through limited taxation (effectively around 1%), cheap loans with negative real interest rates, regular debt forgiveness, free insurance, and lower costs for fuel, machinery, electricity, and other goods and services.^[26] During the 2000s, subsidies accounted for 7-9% of the government budget or 3-5% of GDP.^[27]

As of 2023, 5,756 thousand hectares were used for crops.^[28] In the same year, agriculture generated 7.2% of GDP,^[d] employed 6.9% of workers, and accounted for up to a fifth of exports in 2020.^[e][12][32] Belarus achieved self-sufficiency in everything except fruits, for which consumption is a third higher than production.^[33]

Crops constituted 46.6% of agricultural output, of which 16.1% were vegetables and 9.8% were cereals, while livestock production was 53.4%, with milk accounting for 32.5% of it.^[34] By volume, 1.4 million cows produce roughly 7.8 million tonnes of milk,^[35][36] and products derived from it generated $263 million in exports.^[37][e]

As of 2023, Belarus was the 3rd largest producer of flax,^[i] the 4th largest of vetches in the world^[j], the 4th largest of triticale^[k], the 4th largest of rye^[l], the 8th largest of cranberries, the 10th largest of buckwheat, the 11th largest of sour cherries, the 11th largest of lupins, the 14th largest of sugar beet, and the 21st largest producer of potatoes.^[36]

• Economy of Belarus

• CIA World Factbook: Belarus
• Library of Congress Country Studies: Belarus
• Belarus Digest: Belarus Agriculture: Success Abroad, Failure At Home Archived 2017-05-05 at the Wayback Machine