Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 21:33:43 -0500 (EST)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: M-I: Re: Collectivized agriculture under Marxist regimes



Roxanne Gardner writes:

>There are all kinds of reasons for the greater of "efficiency" of
>private agriculture over that subject to collective planning.   In 
>Cape Verde I was told that land productivity was higher on the 
>private than on the collective fields....Only much later did I 
>learn that this was due to the fact that more labor inputs were
>lavished on the private fields...


This is borne out by the macroeconomic studies like those of Brada and
Wadekin (eds) *Socialist Agriculture in Transition: Organizational Response
to Failing Performance* (Boulder,  Colo., 1988: Westview).    For example,
there is ample evidence to suggest that,  in comparison with West European
nations,  the Soviet Union had unusually high seeding rates for grain,  that
the ratio of straw to grain was higher,  that the fodder per cow ratio was
higher,  that milk yields per cow were lower,  and that the Soviets had
excessive waste of harvested grain arising from poor storage and transport.
This points to the inefficacy of specific Soviet practices,  rather than to
systemic factors or general Marxist policies *per se*.   And recent research
indicates that while farming in Marxist regimes is inefficient for one set
of reasons,  farming in non-Marxist regimes is inefficient for other reasons
(Pryor,  *The Rise and Fall of Collectivized Agriculture in Marxist Regimes*
[Princeton, NJ., 1992: Princeton University Press], p. 239n).

Another variable is the relative performance of private plots versus that of
collective or state farms.    For example,  in China private plots comprise
about 5 per cent of arable land,  but acount for 20 per cent of farm income.
In the last decade of the Soviet Union,  such private plots comprised less
than 5 per cent of the land,  but produced from one fifth to one third of
total agricultural production.   In most cases,  however,  the share of land
accounted for by the private plots is understated since it does not include
the pasturage that was allowed private farmers.    Additionally,  private
plot production was valued in the prices received on the peasant markets,
while collective and state farm production was valued in the lower official
producer prices (Wadekin, *Communist Agriculture: Farming in the Soviet
Union,  Eastern Europe and China* [2nd ed., London,  1993: Routledge]).

The vagaries of privatized agriculture versus that conducted under central
planning often rest on no securer basis than this.

Louis Godena



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