as been kept secret,
so that it is impossible to know how the trade deficit has been
financed. Hard currency receipts from tourism, which could be applied
toward repayment of the debt, equaled only a fraction of the annual
trade deficit. Western sources estimated Romania's indebtedness to her
Western industrial trading partners to have risen from about US$300
million in 1966 to US$800 million in 1968 and to have increased further
by 1970.

CHAPTER 15

AGRICULTURE

As a result of the government's industrialization policy, the relative
importance of agriculture in the economy has declined. During the decade
of the 1960s the contribution of agriculture to national income, in
terms of arbitrarily established official prices, dropped from about 30
to 20 percent, even though half the working population continued to be
employed on farms and farm output was gradually rising. The growth in
output, however, did not keep pace with official plans, mainly because
of a lack of income incentives for farmers under the government's low
farm-price policy and because of inadequate investment and fertilizer
inputs. The farm problem has been exacerbated by the generally low
qualifications of the farm labor force and by the prevalence of
widespread underemployment.

Various revisions in agricultural organization and methods of
compensation made from 1968 to 1971 did not produce any marked
improvement by the end of that period. The failure of agricultural
output, including livestock products, to advance according to plans
created economic difficulties by depriving the country of potential
exports urgently needed to pay for industrial imports. It has also
hampered the improvement of the population's protein-deficient diet.
Substantial advances in all phases of agriculture are planned for the
1971-75 period. In the light of past experience, attainment of the
established goals is uncertain. The full production potential of
agriculture remains largely unexploited.

AGRICULTURAL REGIONS

Natural conditions are generally favorable for agricultural development.
A varied topography has produced diversified regional weather and soil
conditions. The climate is basically continental, with warm summers and
cold winters, but the growing season is relatively long--from 180 to 210
days.

The amount of precipitation fluctuates from year to year, which results
in recurrent droughts. Rainfall averages about twenty-five inches,
ranging from