ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at major financial aspects of Soviet agriculture and discusses some important reform issues. It offers some observation on the future. Agriculture is in the most dire financial straits of any major sector of the Soviet economy. The imperative for restructuring in Soviet agriculture is strong. Growth of production remains disappointing, the drain on the state budget continues to grow, and the prospects of having to write off billions of rubles of bad debts improve. The developing imbalance in the economy as a whole has created strong justification for continued administrative presence in agriculture. While the Council of Ministers proposal leaves open the possibility of administrative oversight of farms’ activity, debate of the proposals turned up strong support for legal guarantees for farms against such interference. A strange combination of inappropriate administrative regulation and a lack of accountability for the use of funds has led to a tremendous amount of bad debt, requiring costly government bailouts.
