Soviet farm inefficiency

Press, 20 July 1984, Page 22

Soviet farm inefficiency

NZPA-Reuter Moscow A third of all Soviet farms are losing money and stay in business only through State subsidies and bank credits, reports the Communist Party daily newspaper, “Pravda.” In spite of strict orders from the leadership two years ago that all farms had to find ways of cutting losses and becoming profitable, many were now getting into debt more quickly than before, it said. The report is a rare admission of the scope of the problems afflicting Soviet agriculture in spite of efforts during the last five

years to introduce reforms and improve efficiency. The figure it gave means that more that 15,000 Soviet farms are working constantly at a loss. When it announced a long-awaited food programme in May, 1982, the Kremlin declared that all State and collective farms were expected to get into the black and end their dependence on subsidies. “Pravda” said that a third of them “have not even bothered to take the trouble to try.” Managers still sought an easy life by relying on State hand-outs and many of the offending farms were grossly inefficient.