View Of Russian Farming

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31906, 6 February 1969, Page 10

View Of Russian Farming

With some capital flowing back to the land, farmers in the Soviet Union are hoping for a better chance to combat the severe climatic conditions with which they have to deal. This assessment was given yesterday by Dr L. J. Symons, senior lecturer in geography at the University of Canterbury, who has returned after two visits to Russia during 16 months overseas study leave. This could be done by increased irrigation, housing for livestock, shelter belts, transport, and more suitable machinery, Dr Symons said. Soviet agriculture had in the past been forced to subsidise the industrialisation of the State. It had suffered, with the whole country, from the almost unbelievable ravages of war just when it was recovering from the unpopular measures of forced collectivisation.

Dr Symons said the object of his research was an unbiased appraisal of the advances of farming currently occurring in the Soviet Union. He had been handicapped by his limited time, the high cost of travel over vast spaces, and the absence of a cultural exchange agreement between New Zealand and the U.S.S.R. which limited the assistance he could get from the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture, he said.

The vast experiment in collectivisation in the Soviet Union over the last 30 years had created an enormous laboratory in which the techniques and economics of largescale farming could be studied, said Dr Symons. This could give guidance on the working conditions of very large units, and the optimum size of factory farms of the future.

Dr Symons said understanding and anlysis of the Soviet experience had been hindered. Soviet authorities had been reluctant to permit extensive free visiting of their

farms by foreigners, and there was a lack of unbiased study by Westerners of the materia) that was available. “Much of the study of Soviet farming carried out abroad has been done by emigre Russians, who tend to be prejudiced against the Soviet system,- and whose work is often rendered misleading,” Dr Symons said. Dr Symons said in spite of limitations, he travelled under Intourist arrangements, from Soviet Central Asia into Siberia, visiting the Academic City at Novosibirsk, and the world’s largest operating hydro-electric scheme at Bratsk, in the autumn of 1967. He also travelled in European Russia, from Leningrad to the Caucasus in the summer of 1968. He said he was able to visit several collective and State farms, and managed to include some which were not of the highest standard, to which foreign visitors would not usually be taken. He found clear evidence, on most farms visited, of a high technical level of husbandry with careful attention to farm economics, said Dr Symons. The main drawbacks hindering fully economic opera tion were continued lag in mechanisation, and a labour force which, by New Zealand, standards, would be considered excessive.

“A fairly typical collective in the North Caucasus region has about 25,000 acres under the plough, and almost as much again in extensive pasture,” he said. “This is worked by 1060 men and women.”

But although total numbers of agricultural workers was high, skilled labour was short because of the attractions of the industrial towns.

“The standard of living on the farms is undoubtedly much higher than it was a decade ago, but as in most advanced countries, young people are attracted to the towns by job opportunities, social contacts and higher education, and few return to the countryside permanently,” said Dr Symons. i

Discussing agricultural development, he said that given the investment and the trained labour force, big farming units could show some advantages compared with small peasant holdings. “Most Soviet farms now have grain and grass drying units which can only be supported by large farms or cooperative agreements. Large, economical units can be built for stall-feeding of cattle, and intensive pig-rearing units are becoming common. “The Soviets have been pioneers in artificial insemination as a means towards livestock improvement and, with their large units, this can be economically applied to sheep as well as to cattle, pigs, and horses. “A great deal of improvement in organisation and in the incentives offered to workers and peasants still, however, remains necessary before the full advantage of the large farms can be realised,” Dr Symons said.