ut a portion of
that increase was offset by the loss of more than 358,000 horses and
buffalo. In 1970 Bulgaria had more tractor power per acre than any other
Eastern European communist country except Czechoslovakia and more horses
per acre than any of these countries with the exception of Hungary,
which had a slightly larger number.

Grain combines on farms numbered 9,340, or 2.4 combines for each 1,000
acres of grain crops. In this regard Bulgaria ranked above the Soviet
Union and at the average of the other Eastern European communist
countries. Nevertheless, according to the minister of agriculture, only
about 50 percent of the labor in wheat production was mechanized in
1972, even though wheat production was considered to be the most highly
mechanized branch of agriculture. In other production branches the level
of mechanization was extremely low.

According to scattered Bulgarian press reports the supply of farm
machinery is inadequate for the needs, unbalanced as to composition,
and inferior in design and physical condition. Many of the available
tractors and combines are overage and obsolete. The situation is
aggravated by chronic shortages of spare parts for both domestic and
imported equipment. Production of parts is inhibited by its relatively
low profitability, despite incentives offered by the government.

Under the Sixth Five-Year Plan farm machinery valued at 780 million leva
is to be delivered to agriculture from domestic sources and from the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON--see Glossary). This
machinery is to include more powerful tractors and grain combines,
milking machines, and sprinkler irrigation systems. Machinery is also to
be provided for the harvesting of corn, sugar beets, cotton, rice,
fruits, and vegetables and for the harvesting and processing of feed
crops. Adequate information on the progress of the mechanization program
during the first two years of the five-year period is not available, but
there is evidence that shortages of spare parts and trained operators
continued to immobilize substantial numbers of farm machines.

MARKETING

The marketing of farm products has been geared to the fixed five-year
plan quotas for sales to the state. It is based on bilateral contracts
between trusts in the food-processing industry and agroindustrial
complexes or their constituent units. Contracts are concluded for a
five-year period and are broken down by years. They cover the ent