INTRODUCTION

The Network for Agricultural Policy Research and Development (NAP) is a voluntary organization initially established and promoted by the Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis Division of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the UN in collaboration with Governmental and non-Governmental institutions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). NAP was formally established at the Workshop on Agricultural Policy in Transition in CEE, in Nitra, Slovakia, in May 1994, upon the recommendation of the First Ministerial Consultation on Agricultural Policy Development and Harmonization in Central-East and Eastern Europe, held in Hungary in 1993.

The purpose of NAP is to bolster the region's enduring institutional capacity for agricultural policy decision-making by maximizing the use of expertise and resources available locally. While each country has embarked on economic reform with a different legacy, the main priorities are common to all countries. Even though each country is at a different stage of transformation, the cross-country exchange of information and experiences concerning the implementation of national agricultural policy reforms is extremely useful.

At present NAP embraces 65 members from 25 countries including 13 members from 8 Western countries. Eleven Governments have nominated National Focal Points (NFP). Membership is rapidly increasing. It is felt that the importance and the role of NAP can contribute to reversing the slowdown of the transformation process by giving strong support and facilitating the sharing and flow of information among member countries. The NAP home page on the Internet: <http://fadr.msu.ru/NAP> contributes toward achieving this aim.

This volume contains selected papers presented at NAP's First Plenary meeting, which took place between 25 and 28 April, 1996 in Bucharest, Romania, and was sponsored by the FAO Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis Division (ESA) in association with the Institute of Agricultural Economics of the Romanian Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (ASAS).

The meeting's general theme was "Modelling of agri-food sector developments in Transforming Economies of Central and Eastern European countries". The theme choice was made on the basis of the proposals submitted to the Secretariat by NAP members and included three major sub-topics for in-depth analysis.

The four reports presented on the first sub-topic, "Entrepreneurial management as the base of competitive and cost efficient agriculture in CEE" covered the progress of reform and development in the agricultural sector in Albania, Lithuania and Romania, and the development of extension services in Belarus. Albania's impressive progress along the path to a market economy has been associated with the development of a modern market information system, training of agri-food managers, and the establishment of producers and marketing organisations. The importance of training managers was also emphasized in the case of Lithuania, where the creation of agricultural producers' co-operatives is seen as a possible way of fighting the present monopsonistic distortions existing in the food processing and trade services sectors. In Romania, small farm size and inadequate land market legislation constitute the major obstacles to economic efficiency and a proper land market. For Belarus, the structure of extension and information services and the importance of its functioning smoothly in the agricultural sector was emphasized.

The nine papers presented on the second sub-topic, "Structuring a modern agri-food sector in CEE countries", covered a wide range of subjects related to the restructuring process thus reflecting the fact that those countries (i.e. Albania, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Russian Federation and Ukraine) now stand at very different stages of the transition process. In particular, the macroeconomic setting was still quite different between the CEE countries, on the one hand, and the CIS countries, on the other. In addition, the traditional indicators with regard to the weight of the agricultural sector in the corresponding national economies (e.g. agriculture's share in GDP, in exports and in employment) showed a range of different situations in those countries. However, due to the market orientation of the transformation process in all these countries a few similar central issues were the focus of most papers presented.

For the third sub-topic of the agenda, "Modelling of agri-food sector in the CEE countries in the context of the European integration", five papers, three from countries in transition (Poland, Russia and Slovenia), one from Italy (unfinished) and one from the United Kingdom raised issues related to the need for a framework to model the agricultural and food integration process. In addition this session covered the implications of different agricultural policies on global and macroeconomic efficiency, the re-distribution effects of agricultural policies with respect to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU and its likely reform, and the implications of the commodity price gap between CEE and the EU for future integration.

In addition, two special papers were presented at the end of the working sessions, both of them capturing the attention of the audience. One, by Dr. Alexander O. Makeev discussed the use of the Internet as a means of communicating agricultural policy information and has resulted in NAP developing its own home page. The other, by Dr. Frances Sandiford and Dr. Ed Rossmiller gave a conceptual and pragmatic presentation on analyzing the policy delivery systems as a useful framework for assessing the impact of policy implementation particularly in the transition countries where the old institutions through which policy was implemented are being abandoned in favour of new ones.

Finally I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Dr. Dorina Minoiu, National Focal Point for Romania, the Institute of Agricultural Economics of the Romanian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and its staff, who made both the Plenary meeting and this publication possible.

Slobodanka B. Teodosijevic

Network Secretariat