Khrushchev's agricultural policy Flashcards
describe the virgin land schemes 1953-1964:
-K believed that cultivating grazing lands in western siberia and northern kazahstan would increase production
-the first scheme seemed successful, so the cultivated area was extended and there was a campaign to attract farmers to settle in these areas
-members of the Komsomol were encouraged to help build settlements in those areas
-by 1956 almost 36 million hectares of ‘virgin land’ had been ploughed
describe government incentives for peasants to produce more:
-price paid for state procurement of grain was raised
-state quotas were reduced
-taxes were reduced
-quotas on private plots were cut
-collectives could set their own production targets
describe government changes to further increase production:
-increase in farms connected to the electricity grid
-1962 campaign for more use of fertilisers
-increased use of farm machinery
-encouragement to merge collectives to create bigger farms led to more ‘state farms’ which in particular helped withe the virgin lands scheme
-campaign for new crops e.g. maize as it produced a high tonnage per hectare and could be used for human and animal consumption
successes of agricultural policies:
-statistics appeared impressive
-K was the first USSR leader to show such an interest in agriculture and made a huge effort to integrate rural areas into the party structure which increased rural representation within the party
failures of agricultural policy:
-measures failed to encourage peasants to increase effort on the collective and state farms
-private plots contributed 30% of produce (even though they only represented 3% of the cultivated area) and provided half of the peasants’ income
-new pricing system was a failure as state officials kept altering prices so farmers found it difficult to plan ahead
-discontent at the low prices the state paid for products and the interference of party officials in farm management
-virgin lands scheme was less successful in the long term as the land was worked so intensively that there was land erosion and soil rapidly became infertile. due to failures and bad harvest of 1963, USSR was enforced to import grain which was embarrassing
-only a limited rise in milk production when cows were transferred to collectives
-crops were often grown in unsuitable soil
-the results were very mixed and K’s USSR was a time of too many different initiatives carried out with insufficient thought