Wanted: An Effective Land Use Policy and Improved Reclamation

Abstract

Despite the changes in agricultural policy under the Brezhnev-Kosygin regime, Professor Nove would undoubtedly agree that Soviet agriculture continues to labor under the following disadvantages: (1) problems of production, related to the marginal resource base; (2) problems of incentive, which continue to affect farm efficiency and productivity; and (3) problems of administration, which continue to restrict local decision-making and farm autonomy.1 For the most part Professor Nove's essay has addressed itself to the last two sets of problems. Because of this, some elaboration of the problems pertaining to the first category seems warranted. Here I want to refer principally to Soviet attempts to deal with the need for an effective land policy and improvements in land reclamation. The sheer size of the Soviet agricultural base is overwhelming. According to Soviet estimates, the arable area amounts to more than 217 million hectares with an additional 300 million hectares in natural hay and pastures (all categories).2 In the past, Soviet geographers have tended to extol the seemingly almost unlimited agricultural potential. Brezhnev, however, in a speech to the Third Congress of Collective Farms meeting in the Kremlin on November 25, 1969, saw fit to remind the country that the era of optimism was coming to an end.3 Pointing out that erroneous conclusions had been drawn from tlle notion of boundless land resources, the party leader warned the congress that the ratio of arable land per capita had declined to 0.94 hectares and was destined to fall even further. This declining ratio has been brought about by a steady population growth (despite some slowing down in the 1960s), the increasing sprawl of urban areas and industrial enterprises,4 and the inundation of good