Agriculture + Land

• The average peasant had less than 4 hectares of land which was barely enough to subsist.

  
  

  The nobility kept the best land for themselves.

  
  

  The fact that every male child had right to land meant that land was divided into even smaller allocations.
• Farming methods remained backwards with mir elders resisting change and peasants lacking money to invest in equipment.

  
  

  In 1878, only 50% of peasants could produce a surplus.

  
  

  Some peasants were successful and emerged as the new kulak class.
• The creation of Land Banks in 1883 for peasants and 1885 for nobles helped peasants buy surplus land and land off nobles with low interest rates.

  
  

  26 million hectares of land were bought by peasants between 1877 and 1905.
• The amount of food grown in a given area of land (yields) remained low compared to Western Europe.

  
  

  Grain yields were 3 times lower than in the UK or Germany.