SURVEY OF USSR AGRICULTURE FOR 1949

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600330401-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 401
• Publication Date: August 2, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/31: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600330401-9
CLASSIFICATION SECRET SECRET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic - Agriculture
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers, semimonthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED 24 Nov 1949 - 31' 1950
LANGUAGE
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1949
DATE DIST. 94ug 1950
NO. OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
OF STN, UNNN N `TIS STATES VITHINslit iuIIINI Of U ONORAL ASISACT $0
S. S. 0., SI AND SS.M AN[NOID. ITS TRANSMISSION ON THE NITLLATTON
OF ITS NTg ANY %Ammon
AW $11
NIIITID STTLAW. 1 SITSOOUCTION 0/ THIS SON" /S -NNON SIT IS. IS P"
Newspapers and periDd:.cals as indicated.
SURVEY OF USSR AGRICULTURE FOR 1949
umbers in parentheses refer to appended sources]
Socialist agriculture, despite the huge losses' suffered during the war and
the severe drought of 1946, is steadily progressing. The kolkhoz system has
grown stronger and products of farming and livestock raising have increased.
During the past 2 years the sowing area expanded by 20 million hectares.
The gross grain harvest in 1948 was 7 billion pud, only slightly below
the prewar 1940 level; the average yield of grain crops from one hectare ex-
ceeded the prewar level. In 1949, the.gross grain-crop harvest was 7.6 bil-
lion pud, which is almost the level of output set by the Five-Year Plan for
1950. As a result of the successful solution of grain-raising problems, con-
ditionS were created for a steady growth of industrial crop harvests and for
the development of livestock raising. In 1949, the harvests of cotton, flax,
sunflowers, and potatoes considerably exceeded the 1940 prewar level for in-
dustrial crops.
in 1949, kolkhozes received three to four times more tractors, automobiles,
and agricultural machines than in 1940. In 1940., only the preparation of the
soil, sowing, and the harvesting of grain crops was done by machines, but now
many other, agricultural processes are mechanized.
iCS are steadily improving their operations and are the most important
means for expanding agriculture. During 1949, MTS worked 40 million more hec-
tares of kolkhoz land than in 1940.
Electrification of agricultural work is also expanding rapidly. Ten times
as many kolkhozes were electrified in 1949 as in 1940. The mechanization and
electrification of agriculture is converting agricultural labor. into a form of
industrial labor, and thus helping to eliminate the differences which exist be-
tween the city and the country. At present over 82 percent of all spring plow-
ing and fallow plowing is mechanized and nearly half the grain crop is harvested
by combines.
STATE
ARMY
SECRET
UL
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SECRET
In 1949, considerable progress was made in fulfilling the 3-year plan for
the development of livestock raising. Thousands of new kolkhoz farms for cattle,
sheep, hog, and poultry raising were organized. The prewar production level of
cattle, sheep, and goats is now being surpassed by kolkhozes.
Under the postwar Five-Year Plan, socialist agriculture has progressed
successfully in providing stable and high harvests. The plan for shelter-belt
tree planting, the introduction of grass-field rotation, and construction of
ponds, and reservoirs in steppe and forest steppe areas of European USSR have been
carried out according to agronomical science. The 19+9 plan for tree planting
by kolkhozes and sovkhozes was doubled. In tie steppes and forest steppes of
European USSR, shelter-belt tree planting covered a general area of 590,000
hectares, and 800,000 hectares of soil were prepared for future tree planting.(l)
Much work is being done on the planting of nerenrial fruit and b ry plants.
Progress has already been made in growing perennial rye. The first peennial
rye to be grown in the Donbass was planted in 1948 on the Sovkhoz imeni Oktyabr=
skaya Revolutsiya. Perennial rye, which was discovered by Academician A. I.
Derzhavin, produces a harvest for several consecutive years without `:?ing re-
planted.
In the spring of 1950, perennial rye was grown in other sovkhozes. The
rye was sown last fall from seeds harvested in the Sovkhoz imeni Oktyabr'skaya
Revolutsiya. In Stalino Oblast, over 400 hectares of perennial rye have now
been sown.(2)
New and hardier varieties of vegetables are being successfully cultivated
in the Far East. For example, the agricultural meterological station in Baku-
riani village, which has been in existence for over 10 years, is attempting to,
produce frost-resistant varieties of vegetables for kolkhozes in the high moun-
tain zone. Cabbage, string beans, carrots, and radishes produced on experimen-
tal fields at the station are now being successfully cultivated on the kolkhozes
in Bakuriani.
A large harvest of vegetables was obtained in 1949. The yield per hectare
was 1,100 centners for cabbage, 450 centners for beets,'350 centners for'carrots,
300-340 centners for potatces.(3)
Similarly, sweet potatoes have been successfully introduced not only in
the subtropical areas but also in the eastern parts of Georgian SSR (Tbilisskiy,
Gardabanskiy, Khobskiy, and other rayons). Besides serving as food, sweet po-
tatoes are used for industrial pu.:poses. Starch, flour, sugar, and alcohol
are manufactured from them, and sweet-potato syrup is used by the confectionery
industry.(4)
Progress has also been made in developing new cotton-raising areas. On
5 January, a meeting was held by.the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences USSR,
under the leadership of Academician S. I. Vavilov. At that time, means for
raising cotton in fields along the Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya rivers were
discussed by P. A. Letunov, head of the'Aral-Caspian expedition. The expedition,
organized in 1947, is investigating the problems connected with further expan-
sion of cotton raising. It is studying the extremely important questions of in-
creasing the. cotton harvest on existing irrigated lands and working out measures
to utilize new water resources and land. As a result, scientific bases to protect
the irrigated lands of. Central Asia from dry winds have been set up, and measures
for establishing sands and improving the pasture area for livestock raising have _
been worked out.
The problems on which the expedition is working are of great importance to
the national economy. In 1950, the scope of the work being done by the
expedition is to be increased and new and important -tasks will be given to it.(5.)
SECRET
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Significant results have also been obtained in the field of selective
seeding as a result of the close cooperation between the All-Union Institute
of Plant Cultivation in Leningrad and the Scientific Institute of the People's
Democracies. Recently, the Leningrad Institute received from Czechoslovakia
valuable seed material and several new varieties of potatoes developed there
by botanists and seed-selection experts. It also received a large quantity
of seed samples of grains and garden crops from Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
In exchange, the institute sent seed samples to various agricultural crop sci-
entific research institutes of the People's Democracies:(6)
Scientific institutions are also helping to raise the productivity of
livestock. The Ministry of Agriculture is establishing new research institutes
to work on livestock raising, veterinary science, and feed procurements. In
Saratov Oblast, for example, the Experimental Station for Livestock is being
reorganized. Beginning 1 January 1950, it will be called the Southwest Zonal
Scientific Research Institute for Livestock and Feed Procurement. A Siberian
Zonal Institute is being erected in Omsk and a Far Eastern Zonal Scientific Re-
search Veterinary Institute in Blagoveshchensk.
During 1949-50, livestock-raising departments are to be organized at the
Irkutsk and Kursk Agricultural Experimental Stations, the Kaluga, Pensa, and
Mariyets Experimental Stations for Farming, and the Kemerovo, Shatilovka, Mor-
shansk, and Chuvash State Breeding Stations.(7)
As the 3-year plan for the development of livestock raising nears comple-
tion, kolkhozes, and sovkhozes of Issuk-Kul' Oblast, Kirgiz SSR, are making
better use of mountain pastures. At present, 1z times more livestock winter
in the bog zones than did last year. Hundreds of thousands of sheep and horses
graze annually on more than 100 kolkhozes and sovkhozes of Dzhety-Oguzskiy,
Novo-Voznesenovskiy, and Tonskiy rayons.
Extra food is stored for the livestock in case of temporary bad weather.
Shepherds and horse wranglers, who tend the livestock, and a large group of
zoological technicians, veterinary doctors, and medical workers live in the bog
areas.(8)
1. Molodoy Bol'shevik, No 6, Mar 50
2. Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, No 64, 31 May 50
3. Zarya Vostoka, No 4, 6 Jan 50
4. Pravda Vostoka, No 230, 24 Nov 49
5. Pravda, No 6, 6 Jan 50
6. Izvestiya, No 9, 11 Jan 50
7. Kommunist, No 276, 24 Nov 49
8. Izvestiya, No 8, 10 Jan 50
015
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