CGIAR Regional Program for Central Asia and the Caucasus Annual Report 2002 - 2003

Abstract

The process of transition from formerly centrally planned economies into market economies has led to significant consequences in most of the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus. While on one side, the importance of agriculture in the region increased through its share, on the other, the agricultural production dropped in the mid- 1990s. While it recovered in some countries, on an aggregate, agricultural, crop and livestock production indices are still ranging between 50-90% of the pre-independence base of 1989-91. As a result, GNI per capita has declined by an average of 25% between 1991 and 1997. Six of the CAC countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) are now classified as low income countries, and GNI per capita for the CAC region as a whole is presently less than the overall average for the developing countries in the world2. Consequences of all these have led to increased poverty (25 to 40%) in the region.