{"id":87182,"date":"2024-05-26T12:24:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-26T09:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/87182\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"casting-spells-and-wasting-money-lukasenka-revamps-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/87182\/","title":{"rendered":"Casting spells and wasting money: \u0141uka\u0161enka revamps agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By<\/em> Ale\u015b Hudzija<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three things you can watch endlessly – how water flows, how fire burns and how Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka revives agriculture – the work of Sisyphus in terms of effort and result. By analogy with the ancient Greek legend, the revival of agriculture is part of the government\u2019s myth about the Belarusian economic miracle.
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n Blessing of machines before field work in the Kruh\u0142aje district, Mahilo\u016d region, in March 2024\n <\/div>\n \n
\n (krugloe.by \/ Julia Khodas)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka was a collective farm boss in the 1980s, and since then he remains fixated on agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farming revolution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

His ideas about the economy and society were shaped by agriculture. He tries to apply Soviet collective farm approaches to the economy. Since a Soviet collective farm was more about window-dressing than about efficiency, similar practices are still widely used today.

At a conference with officials on April 16, \u0141uka\u0161enka called for a farming revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n \n
\n (Press office of Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Playing with numbers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the same conference, \u0141uka\u0161enka expressed concern about misreporting.

“You have learned to play with numbers without thinking about the fact that unreliable data leads to wrong management decisions,” said \u0141uka\u0161enka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


“The worse a company performs, the more support it gets [from the government],” he noted, adding that “the question arises why should it perform well? It is just a waste of money.” A valid point. This is the essence of state ownership in Belarus, and not only in agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithuania beats Belarus without collective farms and fights for harvest<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Government statisticians have reported agricultural output and export growth.

However, over the past three decades, the contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product and the number of people employed in this sector have fallen sharply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-1990s, agriculture accounted for 15 percent of GDP and nearly 20 percent of employed workforce, whereas now it accounts for about 8 percent of GDP and employs far fewer people, just about 300,000.
Belarusian agriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Percentage of GDP (blue); Percentage of employed workforce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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