percent of the arable land in 1969,
they possessed almost 28 percent of the tractors, 24 percent of the
grain combines, and similar proportions of other major types of farm
machinery. Moreover, they received more than 37 percent of the chemical
fertilizers delivered to agriculture and farmed almost 33 percent of the
irrigated land. As a consequence, per-acre yields on state farms have
been generally higher than yields on collective farms.

Agricultural Mechanization Enterprises

The bulk of the mechanized operations on collective farms has been
performed for payment in cash and in kind by specialized state
enterprises for the mechanization of agriculture, which control a large
share of the country's farm machinery and tractors. This policy has
provided the state with an added lever of control over the farms; it was
used in the past to extract a substantial volume of farm produce for the
state through payments in kind for services rendered. For political
reasons, and also because of the weak financial position of many
collective farms, the government has not followed the example of other
Eastern European states that disbanded their machine-tractor stations
and sold the equipment to the farms.

In 1969 the agricultural mechanization enterprises controlled 70 percent
of the available farm tractor power and an even larger share of the
tractor-drawn and self-propelled farm machinery. State farms owned
virtually all the balance. Collective farms, which cultivated 75 percent
of the arable land, possessed only 1.6 percent of the tractor power and
a still smaller proportion of major farm machinery items.

As of January 1, 1971, the system of agricultural mechanization
enterprises was reorganized with a view to improving the quality of
their operations. Forty enterprises were established throughout the
country--one in each of the thirty-nine counties and one in the
Bucharest area--with 772 subordinate stations to service an equal number
of farm associations and about 4,500 sections to work with individual
collective farms. The main stated task of the mechanization sections is
to introduce and expand the mechanization of plant and animal production
on the farms.

To accomplish the task, each mechanization section is to coordinate the
use of its own equipment with that belonging to the collective. Within
the framework of this cooperation, the state mechanization enterprises
were made increasingly responsible for the agricult