ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union grows more wheat than any other country in the world. Although the present Soviet wheat production satisfies her domestic needs, disastrous harvests have led to huge covert purchases abroad. In some years these have drained global reserves and shocked the world wheat market. Wheat is the most important crop grown in the Soviet Union. Occupying some 60 million ha or nearly 30% of the Soviet cropland, wheat accounts for about one-half of all the Soviet grain reaped. In the Transcaucasus and in Soviet Central Asia a small quantity of spring wheat is grown in early summer on lands that are sparsely irrigated. In elevated foothills the crop depends upon a very scanty and uncertain spring precipitation. In the Transcaucasus and Soviet Central Asia winter wheat is grown either on irrigated land in rotation with a summer crop such as cotton, or in elevated foothills where the crop depends on seasonal winter rains.
