Khrushchev's Economy - Agriculture

Virgin Land Scheme​

Aim​

• Hoped to increase Soviet Agricultural production by turning unfarmed land into new farms
• Agricultural investment grew from 3% a year to 12.8% between 1954 and 1959​

Success!​

• Overall production increased by 35% from 1953 – 1958​

• Improved standard of living​

• Led to 400% rise in income of farm workers​

However...

• Expensive

• Farms in Kazakhstan needed sophisticated irrigation systems (expensive to run and maintain)

• Failed to lead to further growth

• Harvests in 1959 and 1960 were slightly below the 1958 levels
• Below the targets

The Corn Campaign September 1958

• Encouraged farmers in Ukraine to grow maize

• His plan was to shift production of wheat to the Virgin Lands while maize would be grown in the traditional farms

• The maize would be used to feed animals and would increase the amount of meat available

Failure…

• His initiative was based on the success of US farms

• Soviet farms were only able to produce 50% of the corn per hectare

• Growing more corn meant that Soviet farms produced less hay

• The amount of animal feed dropped by 30% between 1958 and 1964