Food Programme
The Food Programme was an initiative to enhance and improve the conditions of
Twelfth Five-Year Plan
(1986–1990).
The Programme
Twelfth Five-Year Plan.[3]
Council of Ministers, objected to this, believing that the central ministries were fit to handle the reform's implementation themselves. According to Martin McCauley, the author behind Gorbachev, Tikhonov objected because he believed Gorbachev was trying to take his place as Council of Ministers chairman.[4]
During Brezhnev's November 1981 speech many
Sovietologists thought that the Food Programme would decrease bureaucratic interference in Soviet agriculture. This, as was later proven, was far from the intended goal.[2] While he did talk about "strengthening" the collective and state farms, he never said he would allow them to decide what to produce and how to produce it for instance.[5] Instead of giving the farmers more independence, Brezhnev announced the establishment of two new bureaucratic layers. The first, the Agro-Industrial Associations, at the district, territory, province and autonomous level of governance would function as a "full-fledged and democratic management agency". Industrial commissions were established at the republic and union level.[6]
Fulfillment
The Food Programme, which was ridiculed in the First World, increased grain yields between 1981 and 1986 by 3.4 percent, an increase from 1.9 percent for the period of 1965 to 1980.[7] Agricultural output decreased in the period of 1986 to 1990, making the fulfillment of the Food Programme's goals unattainable.[8]
Notes
- ^ Johnson & Brooks 1983, p. 92.
- ^ a b Johnson & Brooks 1983, p. 93.
- ISBN 978-963-7326-10-3.
- ISBN 0-582-43758-X.
- ^ Johnson & Brooks 1983, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Johnson & Brooks 1983, p. 94.
- ISBN 978-1-4128-0698-5.
- ISBN 1-56324-214-1.
Bibliography
- Johnson, David Gale; Brooks, Karen McConnell (1983). Prospects for Soviet Agriculture in the 1980s. ISBN 978-0-253-34619-3.