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p Comrades! In considering questions concerning the state of our agriculture, we cannot but take a look ahead into the future. It has often been noted that the population in our country is steadily growing, that the demand for grain and other products is increasing, and that the development of industry is making increasingly greater demands for agricultural raw materials. Taking a long-range view, it is perfectly clear that we must, positively must, increase the rate of growth of agricultural production.

p A further steep rise in yields and gross harvests of all agricultural crops is a necessary condition for the rapid economic development of all the republics, territories and regions, and of the country as a whole, as well as for improving the welfare of the people, which is our main object and constant aim.

p In speaking of the need for higher growth rates in agricultural production, we must again repeat that we shall have to carry out this task under difficult conditions of soil and climate, and this demands the constant and closest attention of the Party to this most important field of our economy. It demands also absolutely concrete practical measures. If we do not take this into account, if we relax our attention and assistance to the countryside, we may complicate the solution of general economic problems.

p The question of still further speeding up the advance of agriculture in the USSR is not simply an economic question, it is also a great political task of the whole Party and the whole state. We must take new big steps in this field and in a very short space of time greatly surpass the present level of agriculture in our country.

p I must repeat that our principal task is still to increase grain production in every possible way. Already in the very near future the average annual production of grain must amount to approximately 190-200 million tons. To achieve this level, it is indispensable to raise grain yields considerably and as quickly as possible.

p To put it more concretely, calculations show that, to ensure such a volume of grain production, the yield for the 118 country as a whole must be raised to about 1.6-1.7 tons per hectare, or by 0.5-0.6 ton as compared with the average grain yield obtained over the past five years. This is a very great task, and, as you realise, comrades, not an easy one.

p We must take new steps also in the sphere of production of technical, oil-bearing and other crops. According to calculations, in the years immediately ahead the gross harvest of raw cotton must be raised to about 7 million tons, that of sunflower seed also to 7 million tons, of sugar beet to 90 million tons and of potatoes to 115 million tons. There will have to be also a rise in the production of vegetables, fruit, grapes, gourd crops, tea and other products.

p The growth of yields and increase in gross harvests will depend to a decisive degree on the application of the necessary quantity of mineral and organic fertilisers and the better supply of farms with machines.

p Our requirements in livestock produce are rising considerably. Already in the near future, the country’s meat production must be brought up to 14-15 million tons, that of milk to 90-95 million tons, of eggs to 45,000-50,000 million, and of wool to 480,000-500,000 tons a year. This growth in production must be obtained mainly through raising the productivity of animals and poultry and by further increasing their numbers. For this we must have feedstuff’s in plenty. In addition to the collective and state farms being able to set aside more fodder grain, it will be of primary importance to further raise the yields of fodder crops and to put the meadows and pastures in good shape, a subject on which we had serious talks at previous plenary meetings of the CC.

p A new branch, created recently—the microbiological industry—must be greatly developed. It is called upon to ensure that the requirements in protein-rich feeds, antibiotics and other products of microbiological synthesis for animal husbandry are fully met. The production of compound feeds must be developed to the utmost in our country.

p As you see, comrades, we are faced with an enormous job in raising all branches of agriculture to a level corresponding to the growing requirements. A high level of production can be achieved in a short space of time only by establishing collective- and state-farm production and the branches servicing it on a more powerful material and technical base. This means equipping agriculture more fully with up- 119 to-date machines, satisfying its requirements in mineral fertilisers and other chemicals, and carrying out large-scale land reclamation works. Without this a steady growth in the productivity of labour in agriculture is unthinkable, and productivity of labour, as you know, is the main source from which our wealth is accumulated and the living standard of the people improved.

p What, practically, shall we have to do in that direction?

p First of all, we must not relax, but on the contrary intensify measures for the chemisation of agriculture. Experience in our country and abroad irrefutably shows that not less than half of the increase in the crop yield is obtained usually by the use of fertilisers. Consequently, chemisation is the most reliable basis for raising crop yields.

p I would remind you that the March Plenary Meeting of the CG and the 23rd Congress of the CPSU set the task of rapidly increasing production of mineral fertilisers, and plant protection and other chemicals. It must be said that in spite of an increase in production of fertilisers and plant protection chemicals, this task is not yet being carried out satisfactorily. In recent years the rate of growth of new capacities for producing fertilisers has decreased.

p The situation in the mineral fertiliser industry was considered by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. As you know, a decision of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was adopted on measures for developing that industry. It envisages an increase in fertiliser producing capacities from 47 million tons to 95 million tons over the 1969-72 period. We must increase the capacities of the chemical industry at high rates also in the coming years.

p A particularly big job of work will have to be done in the next two years. In 1969 we must put into operation fertiliser producing capacities for 13 million tons, and in 1970 for 12.5 million tons. Consequently, capacities must increase over the two years by 25.5 million tons, whereas in three years of the five-year-plan period capacities for only 11-12 million tons are expected to be put into operation.

p The Ministry of the Chemical Industry is called upon to carry out serious work to improve the situation also as regards the quality of mineral fertilisers. Many kinds of 120 mineral fertilisers produced by our industry need to be considerably improved as regards nutrient value and physical properties.

p A pressing problem is that of providing agriculture with highly efficient chemical materials for plant protection. The capacities producing them must be increased by the end of 1972 by nearly 50 per cent.

p The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR have given great assistance to the ministries of the building industry during the current year in implementing the plans adopted. Funds as well as large quantities of metal, pipes, cement, motor transport and building machines and equipment have been allocated for setting up production centres and for building dwelling houses for their builders. Measures have been taken to reinforce the building organisations with skilled workers.

p The task of the Ministry of the Chemical Industry, the Ministry of Chemical and Oil Machine Building and the ministries of the building industry is now to supply the construction sites in time with the technical documentation and equipment, to concentrate on them the necessary material resources and to improve considerably the organisation of construction and assembly work. There must be a radical change in the attitude to the building of enterprises for the production of mineral fertilisers and plant protection chemicals.

p The Party organisations must exercise assiduous control over the construction and timely commissioning of new capacities for the production of chemicals and place greater responsibility on the men in charge of enterprises and construction sites for fulfilment of the decision taken by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

p At the March and May plenary meetings of the Central Committee it was already noted that large tracts of land needed lime and gypsum treatment. A certain amount of work has been done in this respect. Production of liming materials has increased from 10 million tons in 1965 to 16 million tons last year. Over the last three years liming was carried out over 11 million hectares, being 150 per cent more than in the previous three-year period. A number of farms, for instance, in Moscow, Leningrad, and Vladimir regions and the Estonian SSR, have accumulated positive 121 experience in liming soils. But in many regions and republics the situation in this respect is not yet what it should be. Extraction and production of liming materials are frequently carried out by primitive methods. Consequently, their cost is very high and their quality low.

p In order fully to satisfy the requirements of the collective and state farms, no less than 30 million tons of liming materials per year are needed. The same importance must be attached to their production as to that of mineral fertilisers, and the appropriate funds must be earmarked for that purpose in the economic development plans. The Ministry of Building, Road and Communal Machinery and the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machinery Building must provide the appropriate production capacities and arrange the production of highly efficient machines for feeding the liming materials into the soil.

p With every passing year the amount and spheres of application of chemical products will expand. It has already repeatedly been pointed out that as a result of unsatisfactory packaging, bad storage and unskilled application, large amounts of fertilisers are wasted. We have set the task of sharply increasing the output of all chemical products, but if at the same time we do not improve the business of their transportation, storage and application, wastage will increase still further. Therefore the manufacture of packages, building of warehouses and organisation of agrochemical services must be on a level with production and ensure proper storage and rational utilisation of all kinds of chemical fertilisers and plant protection chemicals.

p There must be a firm technical line in developing the production of mineral fertilisers and plant protection chemicals. We must not run to extremes in the production of one or another kind of fertilisers. The industry must know exactly what quantities of nitrogenous, potassium, phosphate and compound fertilisers and plant protection chemicals it has to produce, and what standards of quality they must fulfil. We must determine precisely the agricultural zones in which the various fertilisers are to be used in order to locate the factories correctly. All these questions must be profoundly and thoroughly studied and elaborated. The State Planning Committee, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Chemical Industry, the USSR Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the USSR Academy of Sciences and 122 other departments concerned should work out and submit to the Political Bureau and the Government a general plan for the long-range chemisation of agriculture.

p Comrades! It is now generally recognised that we proceeded correctly in raising at the May Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee such an important question as that of land reclamation. We have been able in the interim to accumulate some experience in obtaining high yields of grain and other agricultural crops on irrigated lands. This is borne out by figures on the cultivation of cotton, rice and wheat in the arid areas of the Volga basin, the Ukraine and North Caucasus.

p The implementation of the land-reclamation plans outlined by the May Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee must constantly focus the attention of agricultural, administrative and Party bodies. Our efforts must be directed in the first place to eliminating the bottle-necks now holding up progress in land-improvement work. The points in question are, first of all, the insufficient capacity of the production base for water economy construction and of the designing organisations, the shortage of digging and building machines, pipes and building materials and the understaffed condition of the water economy organisations as regards engineers, technicians and workers.

p Success in implementing the broad plan of land reclamation will depend to a considerable extent on a statesmanly attitude to this matter on the part of all the ministries and departments concerned in fulfilling the plans for creating production bases and providing reclamation works with equipment, materials and spares. This has to be said because some ministries and departments apparently consider the tasks of water economy construction set them of secondary importance. The USSR Ministry of Industrial Construction, for instance, this year fulfilled only 80 per cent of the ninemonths’ plan for the construction and assembly work on water economy projects, the Ministry of Heavy Industry Construction only 72 per cent, and the Ministry of Rural Construction only 76 per cent. Fulfilment of orders placed by reclamation workers should be a matter of honour for every collective.

p As was already said at the May Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee and shown in practice these years, the 123 question of proper utilisation of state capital investments assigned for land reclamation deserves the most serious attention. On this depends to a great extent the rate at which new irrigated and drained areas will be put into service. If we concentrate financial and material resources on the most important projects, this will make for a quicker return. Briefly, there must be no spreading out or dissipation of resources and forces over numerous projects, no dragging out of construction for years. It must be admitted that we still suffer from this shortcoming.

p Worthy of every support is the initiative of collective and state farms who carry out reclamation works out of their own funds. From 1966 to 1967 in our country as a whole irrigation installations were erected over an area of 157,000 hectares at the expense of collective and state farms. A good deal in the building of reservoirs and irrigating fields was done by farms in Kanev district of Krasnodar region, Izobilny area of Stavropol region, Krasnogvardeisk area of the Crimean region, Maryinsk area of Donets region, and others. Assistance must be given to the collective and state farms in drafting projects and providing reclamation works with the necessary materials and machines. Obviously provision for this should be made in the state plans.

p The problem of land reclamation is a many-sided and extensive one. For the interests of development in agriculture and other branches of our economy to be taken fully into account and the land, water and power resources to be made full use of, it is necessary for the State Planning Committee of the USSR, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Melioration and Water Conservancy, jointly with the leading bodies in the Union Republics, scientists and specialists, to work out a long-term plan for 10-15 years and submit it for consideration to the Central Committee so that it may be reported on at the Party congress. This plan must establish priorities for reclamation works in the different zones, and make provision for the re-routing of river water flows and the development of waterpower engineering. A profound elaboration of these and other questions and the working out of a long-range plan will provide a firm scientific foundation for a matter of such immense state importance as land improvement in our country.

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p At the 23rd Party Congress emphasis was laid on the necessity for organising persistent fight against erosion of the soil by wind and water. This is a very important question. Recently work has begun in many of the country’s eastern districts to protect the soil against wind erosion. A special agrotechnical system has been worked out for crop cultivation in those districts. In the opinion of the scientists the total area over which it is advisable to carry out such a system for protecting the soil in North Kazakhstan and Siberia is 35-40 million hectares. As you see, an area of almost one-fifth of our country’s ploughland is involved. Water erosion control is also necessary over large areas.

p The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR last year passed their decision "On Urgent Measures on Wind and Water Erosion Control”. Party and administrative bodies must exercise assiduous control over and organise in practice the work to implement this decision. The fight against wind and water erosion must be given state-wide scope, for question at issue is the fate of lands in big agricultural areas where large amounts of grain and other products of arable and stock farming are produced.

p The soil must be protected not only against erosion, but also against improper, wasteful use. Attention must be called to this because cases of wastage and direct squandering of land still occur. A number of ministries and departments continue to use valuable agricultural land, even arable and irrigated lands, for industrial and other purposes without any extreme necessity. The collective farms and state farms themselves do not always take good care of the land.

p This matter must be put strictly in order once and for all. An important role in this is to be played by the law on land, the draft of which is at present being discussed by the public and will be submitted for consideration to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

p Comrades! The present and the future of agriculture are inseparably bound up with the state of its technical equipment. We must speed up to the maximum the transition from partial to all-round integrated mechanisation of all branches of agriculture as the basis for raising the productivity of labour and the effectiveness of social production.

p To complete the integrated mechanisation of the basic 125 branches of agricultural production we must considerably increase the fleet of tractors, combines, lorries, excavators and other agricultural and reclamation machines. There must be a big rise in the use of electric power in agriculture.

p At the present time a number of measures are being taken to increase production of agricultural machines. A tractor plant is now under construction in the town of Pavlodar, and plants are being built in Kovel and Uman for producing machines and equipment for livestock farms. The Altai, Kharkov, Volgograd and Minsk tractor plants, the Rostselmash, Taganrog and Krasnoyarsk harvester combine plants and other agricultural machine factories are being reconstructed.

p These measures, however, are far from sufficient for implementing overall mechanisation of agriculture. The State Planning Committee is now working out the target figures for the next five-year plan. The new five-year plan must envisage measures for further developing tractor and agricultural engineering with an eye to satisfying agriculture’s growing requirements in machines, equipment and spares.

p Complex mechanisation of all agricultural branches presupposes raising the technical level of machines. Unfortunately the technical and economic performance of many of the machines produced does not meet modern requirements in agricultural production. Our country has 224 million hectares of arable land, and it is not a matter of indifference to us what kind of machines cultivate that area. In the first place, we are not satisfied with the power capacity of the tractors.

p The basic ploughing tractor in collective and state farms now has a power capacity of 75 h.p. Staff members of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR and Soyuzselkhoztekhnika have calculated what could be obtained by replacing such tractors in the zones where they are used by, say, 150 h.p. ones. Here are the figures: if the power of existing tractors is doubled, the total number of tractors on farms in these zones can be cut by approximately one-third; about 2.5 million tons of metal can be saved on production of those tractors and the machines used with them; investments in the purchase of machines could be reduced by 400 million rubles, and the number of machine operators by 40 per cent. As you see, the benefit thus derived by the 126 state, and the collective and state farms would be considerable.

p The Kharkov Works is now preparing to produce a 15P h.p. tractor. The staff must be given assistance in mastering production of this new type of tractor and making it available to the collective and state farms as quickly as possible. In the years immediately ahead, the Leningrad Kirov Works’ output of the powerful K-700 wheeled tractor, which has earned a good reputation, especially in steppe regions, is also to be expanded.

p At the same time we must place on the order of the day the question of designing and producing a powerful caterpillar tractor for agricultural purposes with a power capacity of 200-250 h.p. or perhaps even more. The Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machine Building must step up work on the construction of machines and equipment to match these powerful tractors.

p Tests of the new grain harvesting combines Sibiryak, Niva and Kolos are now being completed. They are much more efficient than those now produced. Measures must be taken to have these combines delivered to the collective and state farms as quickly as possible.

p For cotton-growing collective and state farms a more productive, four-row cotton harvester has been produced. The output of these machines must be considerably increased, as two-thirds of the cotton is still being gathered by hand. The machine builders are obliged also to satisfy the demands for mountain farming.

p We must devote great attention to mechanising work in animal husbandry. The level of mechanisation of labourconsuming processes in this branch is known to be very low, and manual work still predominates on most farms. Even many newly built farms do not possess the necessary equipment.

p The lag in mechanisation in animal husbandry is due to the serious shortcomings in the organisation of industrial production of the relevant machines and equipment. The volume of this production falls far short of the growing requirements of the collective and state farms.

p Not long ago, the Industry, Transport and Communications Commission of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR considered the question of mechanisation in livestock farms. It has carried out big and very necessary work. Its suggestions 127 must be taken into account in the national economy plan.

p At the height of the harvesting, a large number of lorries have to be mobilised and withdrawn from the national economy to help the farms. Every year for three or four months some 600,000 lorries from outside work in agriculture. As the output of agricultural produce continues to grow, transport will become a still greater problem. We must see this and take the necessary measures in time. This problem must be solved by increasing the production of special vehicles for the countryside, having good all-terrain qualities and adapted to haul various loads.

p At the same time, better use must be made of wheeled tractors for transport purposes in the collective and state farms, particularly inside the farms. At present our country has about one million wheeled tractors. They are used mainly for work in the fields, and often they cannot be used for transportation because of the shortage of trailers. Experience shows that to use tractors to full capacity the farm must have about two trailers to each tractor. At present we do not have even one trailer per wheeled tractor. If the output of trailers is rapidly increased, the strain on freight transport in agriculture can be considerably relaxed.

p Taking into account the great significance this matter has for the state, we consider it necessary to build works to produce annually at least 300,000 tractor trailers adapted for carrying agricultural loads. This problem must be solved as quickly as possible.

p In the next few years scientists, designers and workers in the industrial ministries will have to create many new agricultural and land reclamation machines and organise their production. In this connection we must say at the plenary meeting that an entirely abnormal practice has taken deep root with us by which the working up, development and introduction of new machines are dragged out for a long time. Scientists and designers have created in recent years more than 230 types of new farm machines which have passed state tests and are to be put into production. However, half of them are not yet in production.

p Our discipline in this respect is lax. When the economic development plan is drawn up, the ministries, as a rule, accept the assignments for introducing the new machines without demur; they get the necessary resources for the 128 purpose and then often do not carry out the assignments. The State Planning Committee reports that in 1967 the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machinery Building did not start serial production of six out of eight models or tractors which were to be put into production. This ministry does not exercise sufficient control over the work of the design bureaux and some of its other organisations and enterprises, and as a result agriculture does not receive new machines of which it is in extreme need. Last year plan targets in the production of new irrigation equipment were not fulfilled by the Ministry of Construction, Road and Communal Machinery. A similar state of affairs in respect of the introduction of new equipment and mastering of technological processes exists also in the Ministry of the Chemical Industry. An end must be put to this. On technical progress depends the enhanced effectiveness of social production in all branches of the national economy. The ministries and the ministers personally must be held responsible for the introduction of new equipment.

p The creation of new machines must go in step with the growing requirements of agricultural production. It is very important to strengthen the design bureaux, to give them assistance. In tractor, agricultural and reclamation machine building it is apparently advisable to have general designers for groups of basic machines who will be answerable to the state for developing up-to-date machines for agriculture. Higher encouragements should be introduced for designers and staffs for the creation of new, up-to-date agricultural machines in a short time. It is necessary to work out the relevant regulations in this respect, as is the case in other branches of industry.

p We must study and solve the problem of strengthening direct economic links between the designers’ organisations and the ministries which order tractors, agricultural and reclamation machines on a straight contract basis. The customers could place the orders and finance the designing of the machines which they, above all, need.

p Deserving of much more attention also is the elaboration of long-range problems in the technical equipment of agriculture and the automation of a number of work processes. Already today we must think of the machines of tomorow, of mechanisation in the future based on fundamentally new processes, new kinds of power and materials.

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p Comrades! We are setting great targets for increasing the output of agricultural produce, and this means that major problems will have to be solved for considerably improving the work of the industry which handles and processes that produce.

p As you know, we constantly come up against shortages of meat processing capacities in some places, and of milk processing in others. There is a shortage everywhere of refrigerators. Many enterprises of the processing industry use obsolete equipment and do little to introduce new technology. Our country is building new elevators, warehouses and storage depots, yet the problem of agricultural produce storage still remains quite acute.

p We cannot tolerate a state of affairs when year in year out the plans for building enterprises of the processing industry are not fulfilled. In the current year, for instance, the construction and assembly plan for nine months has been fulfilled to the extent of only 84 per cent on sites of the USSR Ministry of the Light Industry, 78 per cent on sites of the USSR Ministry of the Food Industry, and 77 per cent on sites of the USSR Ministry of the Meat-Packing and Dairy Industry. The Union ministries and departments and the local bodies should take measures for full utilisation of the funds assigned and the timely introduction of new capacities for processing and storing products.

p In drawing up national economic development plans we must pay far more attention to developing the industry which handles and processes agricultural products and raw material, to strengthening its material base. Of great importance is the correct distribution of processing enterprises and storage capacities. Apparently we must take the firm line of having them built closer to production. The utmost support should be given to the initiative of collective and state farms in building enterprises for processing vegetables, fruit and other agricultural raw material and also specialised storage depots. They must be given all possible assistance by state bodies.

p It has repeatedly been suggested that the purchasing organisations and the processing enterprises should take delivery of agricultural produce on the spot at collective and state farms. It will apparently be difficult to do so all at once, but measures should already now be outlined for passing over to a system of receiving and delivering 130 produce by specialised transport belonging to the purchasing organisations and enterprises of the processing industry.

p Permit me to dwell briefly on questions of rural development. Year after year sees the growth of production, housing, cultural and communal construction in collective and state farms. A construction base is being created in the countryside. It must be said, however, that we do not pay due attention to questions of rural construction. The capital investments assigned for this purpose are not made full use of. During nine months of this year, for example, out of the sums allocated for construction and assembly work in the countryside, 159 million rubles were not utilised. As you know, ministries for rural construction have been operating for some years in the Union Republics, but many of them so far have not given a proper account of themselves.

p We must radically alter our attitude to rural construction. Besides adopting measures for unconditional fulfilment of capital construction plans in the countryside and utilisation of the funds allocated for the purpose, we must direct serious and special attention to strengthening the building and designing organisations, and developing production of local building materials.

p Attaching great importance to improving construction in the countryside, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR recently passed a decision defining the main lines along which the villages were to be gradually transformed into well-appointed settlements with good dwellings and cultural and other amenities. The fulfilment of this task will require considerable time and effort. Questions of rural development must always focus the attention of Party and administrative bodies.

p A great contribution to the development of collectiveand state-farm production is being made by Soviet science. The Party and the people highly assess the work of scientists in the field of agriculture. At the same time one cannot fail to note that the level and scope of scientific research in agriculture still do not correspond to the growing demands of our development.

p We must see to it always that the necessary facilities are provided for fruitful work by scientists. Important decisions have recently been taken in this direction by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. I have in mind the decisions on measures for further 131 improving and developing scientific research work in agriculture and also for improving seed-growing. Comrades report that these decisions have been well received by the staffs of institutes and experimetal stations, collective and state farms. Their implementation will without doubt tend to raise the effectiveness of research and step up scientific and technological progress in agriculture.

p The workers of agriculture are particularly anxious to see our scientists develop high-yield varieties of agricultural crops and new highly productive breeds of animals and poultry. We hope the scientists will work with still greater efforts on problems in raising agriculture’s technical level and improving economic work in collective and state farms. Another field that deserves serious attention is that of working out effective means, particularly biological means, for combating plant pests and diseases. Research workers in other fields of science are called upon to give great assistance to agriculture, for in modern conditions, as we know, the successful development of agricultural production is unthinkable without effective use being made of the achievements in mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences.

p We attach great importance to the further development in breadth and depth of scientific and technological cooperation with the socialist countries. In Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and other countries, as also in our country, there is much that is of interest in the field of agricultural research, in the development of new highly productive techniques, new kinds of fertilisers, good agricultural crop varieties and animal breeds. Extensive work is being done to raise the efficiency of agricultural production. A wide exchange of experience, pooling of efforts and mutual use of scientific achievements and progressive practice give all the socialist countries the possibility to step up scientific and technological progress in agriculture and to achieve a considerable rise in labour productivity.

p And so, comrades, to sum up all that has been said about the present situation in our agriculture and about the demands made on that branch by the tasks of communist construction, our Party’s line and all its practical activities in this field, as has already been emphasised, must be directed towards further technical re-equipment of agriculture in the shortest possible time. Our plans in respect of 132 chemisation, land reclamation and overall mechanisation constitute a set of measures that will permit agricultural production to be raised to a level corresponding to (he- scope of communist construction in our country.

The technical re-equipment of agricultural production naturally will require big capital investments by the state and by the collective farms. We must always take this into account and seek ways of allotting funds out of our national income which will meet the growing requirements of the countryside and ensure the harmonious development of all branches of the national economy. This is the line we must firmly pursue also in working out the national economic development plan for the forthcoming five-year period.