Private plots - one dimension of the Soviet second economy.
Porket, J. L.;
Economic Affairs (London) Year: 1990 Vol: 10 Issue: 4 Pages: 28-32 Ref: ref.
1990
บทคัดย่อ
In the USSR, the most important dimension of the legal second economy has been the production of food on private plots and its sale on the collective farm market. A brief history is first presented of the private farm sector from 1928. In the 1980s around 33 million families had private plots averaging between 0.07-0.31 ha. In 1987 the number of man-hours devoted to these plots was equal to that of 14 million full-time farm workers. The contribution to total agricultural output of the private plots is far from negligible; in 1980-83, it continued to reach over 25%. Part of the output of private plots is eaten by the private producers themselves thus reducing the demand for food. The rest is sold by them, usually either to the consumer cooperative network at agreed prices, or on the collective farm market at free prices. The annual value of private plot output sold to the consumer cooperative network is increasing at a faster rate than that sold on the collective farm market. Private plots are an important source of income, particularly for collective farmers, contributing 24.1% in 1985. In 1987, 43% of retired collective farmers' total family income was derived from private plots. The share of the USSR agricultural labour force in the total workforce was 19% in 1986 and labour productivity is noticeably lower than that in Western Europe and the USA. The regular labour force is organized in large units. Agriculture is highly bureaucratic and centrally planned. This adversely affects the performance of collective and state farms as does a low level of mechanization, shortages of packaging materials and poor roads. Postharvest losses are high: 20%-30% perishes en route to the consumer. Rising demand for agricultural produce has not been met by the collective and state farms and private plots have risen in significance. As a result, the present party leadership has taken steps to boost agricultural production; a condition vital to the credibility of perestroika. These measures include: reorganization of the agricultural administration, increased autonomy of farms, collective contracts, the leasing of land, a more favourable attitude towards private plots, and the expansion of private agriculture. In practice these endeavours are hindered by a number of factors, of which bureaucratic resistance is one.