of
the plan.

The agroindustrial complexes must distribute the planned tasks handed to
them from above among their constituent units in accordance with
standards and conditions spelled out by the Ministry of Agriculture. The
district people's councils are required to take an active part in the
process of coordinating the plan and in measures for its attainment
among the units of the agroindustrial complex. On the basis of the state
plan each agroindustrial complex and its constituent parts must prepare
what has been called a counterplan, that is, a plan that sets higher
goals than those officially established.

The large size and diversified operations of the agroindustrial
complexes place a heavy demand upon the expertise of management. Most of
the available specialists do not have the requisite training to solve
the numerous problems posed by planning and operational direction under
the new conditions. Adaptation of agricultural school curricula to the
new requirements and speedy retraining of specialists are therefore
considered to be most urgent.

Some optimistic agricultural officials place high hopes in the
introduction of computer-based automatic control systems. An electronic
computer center was established at the Ministry of Agriculture in 1969,
staffed by a group of 104 enthusiastic young specialists. They undertook
the task of developing a single automated control system for agriculture
and food production in the entire country by 1975, to be based on a
number of integrated local and regional computer centers. By the end of
1970 the computer center had worked out annual plans for several farms
and a plan for hothouse production in the country. It was in the process
of finding a solution to a basic problem of the feed industry--a
solution that would also drastically reduce the industry's
transportation costs.

Considerable attention has also been given to the problem of
communication in connection with the internal direction of the
agroindustrial complexes' varied activities. Here, too, the idea has
been advanced for automated control centers from which instructions
would be issued to all operating divisions and workers in the field
through radiotelephones or similar equipment. In this context a
university instructor analyzing the management problems of
agroindustrial complexes remarked that it was premature to speak of
modern administrative and management methods as long as it was easier
and faster to g