Changes in Labor Inputs in Soviet Agriculture

Abstract

T HIS paper summarizes the effects of Soviet policy and institutions upon the agricultural force and traces the impact upon the volume of inputs in agriculture of recent changes in agricultural policy. Both the size of the agricultural force and the volume of inputs in Soviet agriculture are of crucial importance in the evaluation of Soviet economic potentialities. The particular forms of organization of in Soviet agriculture make it necessary to distinguish the concepts involved in measuring inputs in each of the existing agricultural institutional units. The inputs in the socialized sector of the collective farms are usually measured in terms of so-called labor days, or units of account of relatively unskilled of intensity. Actual inputs by the members of the collective farms are converted into such workdays with the help of certain coefficients. The state farms report the volume of the inputs in terms of number of average yearly workers. Under conditions prevailing in the Soviet Union, both the rural and part of the urban population have found it necessary and profitable to produce agricultural commodities within their household and private plots, for sale or home consumption. Because of the share of private