Retrospective of Economic and Trade Policies Focused on Agricultural Development
The importance of the agricultural sector in the economy of Azerbaijan is high. This sector has always been at the center of economic reforms by the government. This chapter overviews economic and trade policies of the government focused on the development of agricultural production since 1991. Authors carry out analysis of policy changes during separate development stages. The research output presents agricultural policy before the oil boom as mainly devoted to achieving structural transformation from centrally planned economy to the market environment. Within the oil boom period, the government provided substantial fiscal and technical support to the agricultural sector as well as applied tax incentives to farmers but did not pay attention to the transformation from family farming to medium and large-scale production. However, fiscal and macroeconomic challenges of post-oil boom period forced the government to focus on increasing efficiency of the subsidies and incentives and implementation of further agricultural reforms.