L'agriculture soviétique d'aujourd'hui : une analyse des problèmes actuels et des priorités retenues, plus particulièrement en ce qui concerne l'élevage

The following paper was written before the news of the disastrous 1975 harvest became known. The paper argues that present priorities towards agriculture, with their emphasis on accelerated development of livestock products as a major element in improving the lot of consumers, are excessively costly in terms of both domestic resource allocation and foreign exchange pre-empted for feed imports. Desp'te the increasingly widespread introduction of new organisational reforms, many cost enhancing and productivity restrincting practices remain to hinder agricultural growth - which is already subject to severe climatic constraints. A policy switch in favour of non-agricultural consumption goods could provide a cheaper alternative to further dietary improvements. If this comes about, a possible outcome could be a reversion to the net grain exporting position held by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The 1975 harvest result can only reinforce the arguments presented in the paper. The recently published Directives for the 10th five-year plan to 1980 indeed show more modest livestock output growth targets than those retained for 1971-75. Most probably, however, this represents a temporary adjustment to circumstances in face of heavy emergency slaughter of animals in the aftermath of the 1975 harvest, rather than a change in present policies - but this initial assessment remains to be tested in the light of the decisions made at the 25th Congress of the CPSU in February this year.