Stanky posted:I might add that Venezuela should have done as the old Soviet Union did and at least allow a little capitalism for the farms. If the Soviets had not allowed people access to a few percent of the farmland to grow whatever the farmer could sell for a profit, the Soviets would have all starved to death.
Hedrick Smith wrote in The Russians (1976) that, according to Soviet statistics, one fourth of the value of agricultural production in 1973 was produced on the private plots peasants were allowed (2% of the whole arable land).[18] In the 1980s, 3% of the land was in private plots which produced more than a quarter of the total agricultural output.[19] i.e. private plots produced somewhere around 1600% and 1100% as much as common ownership plots in 1973 and 1980. Soviet figures claimed that the Soviets produced 20–25% as much as the U.S. per farmer in the 1980s.[20]
Before the Bolsheviks, czarist Russia was a major exporter of wheat. In southwestern Russia, there were numerous food riots in Rostov-on-Don towards the end of the Soviet Union. A few years ago, private farmers purchased John Deere equipment. Now, the area produces so much, they may export.