Resource information
Land reform was launched in the Republic of Georgia in 1992, about a year after the
country gained its independence from the Soviet Union. While an impressive land
individualization process has been in effect since then, the pace and the performance of
this process are far from satisfactory. This is due to a combination of institutional and
economic constraints. We use comparable survey data from 1996 and 2003 and show
that the land reform has been progressing mainly through land leasing. This allows
successful farm households to expand their farming operation and improve their
well-being. Land documentation doesn’t seem to yield the expected results, and the
blame may be on less than sufficient labor and credit opportunities. We conclude that
there is scope for continuing the process of land reform in Georgia, but this has to be
accompanied by measures to develop rural credit and labor markets.
