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East Germany Agriculture
According to official East German sources, in 1985
agriculture and forestry employed 10.8 percent of the labor
force, received 7.4 percent of gross capital investments, and
contributed 8.1 percent to the country's net product.
Agricultural output did not meet domestic demand. According to
Western sources, in 1983 it satisfied about 90 percent of the
country's needs, the shortfall being imported. Excellent harvests
in 1984 and 1985, however, greatly reduced East Germany's
dependence on imports.
The Soviet model, introduced after World War II, was the
basis for the system of collective and state farms.
Collectivization was not forced on East German agriculture, which
previously had been dominated by family farming operations, until
the late 1950s. By 1960, however, about 85 percent of the
farmland was either collectivized or state owned. State farms, on
which everyone is an employee of the central government, remained
much less important in East Germany than in the Soviet Union.
Collective farms, that is, agricultural producer cooperatives,
constituted the dominant form of agricultural organization. In
1984 they occupied about 85.8 percent of the total agricultural
land, while state farms held only about 7 percent. Other land in
the socialist agricultural sector, which made up 95 percent of
total land in 1984, was held by horticultural cooperatives and
various other specialized units.
Three kinds of collective farms--types I, II, and III--have
existed since the early days of collectivization. Types I and II
are generally considered to be transitional to type III, the most
advanced form. On type I farms, only the plowland must be
collectively used. All other land and productive resources are
left for the members' individual use. On type II collective
farms, all farmland is cooperatively used except small private
plots retained by each member family. In addition, members
surrender all machinery and equipment needed for the operation of
the collective sector. Type III farms are completely
collectivized. All productive resources (including plowland,
forests, meadows, bodies of water, machinery, and buildings)
except for small private plots and a few head of livestock are
used collectively. To become a member of a type III collective, a
farmer must contribute property--buildings, livestock, and
machinery--of a specified value, which becomes the property of
the organization. Members whose assets are not adequate to meet
this requirement may discharge their obligation out of earned
income over a period of time. Work on the private plots must take
place during noncommunal work hours. Owners of private plots can
sell and bequeath them.
On all collective farms, distribution of the income remaining
after compulsory contribution to several specialized funds is
based on the amount of land surrendered by each member and the
amount of work performed for the collective. The second of these
factors is more heavily weighted than the first. The retention of
landownership does have a basis in law; in the past, individual
members have received compensation for their land when it has
been removed from the control of the collective for conversion to
industrial use. Each collective farmer must contribute at least
the minimum annual amount of work prescribed by the collective
assembly (general meeting of all members). Members who do not
perform the specified minimum work are penalized by deductions
from their incomes. In line with SED policy, minimum annual work
norms help ensure that members devote their energies primarily to
the collective sector rather than to their own private plots. By
1980 there were only about 10,000 farmers operating types I and
II collective farms, thus bringing the vast majority of
collective farmers into the type III farm favored by the party.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the trend in East German
agriculture was toward larger units; some crop-producing
collectives and state farms combined to form cooperatives holding
4,000 to 5,000 hectares. These agribusinesses, known as
Cooperative Departments of Crop Production (Kooperative
Abteilungen der Pflanzenproduktion--KAP), which included foodprocessing establishments, became the dominant form of
agricultural enterprise in crop production. In the early 1980s,
specialization also took place in livestock production.
In 1982 the East German government announced a reform program
for agriculture. General goals were an improvement in rural life
and an increase in autonomy for the agricultural producer
cooperatives. The program called for closer cooperation between
arable and livestock farming to facilitate planning, especially
with regard to feedstuffs. It also provided greater incentives
for cooperative farms and modest encouragement of the small
private sector.
During the early 1980s, agricultural performance was
lackluster, lagging behind industrial growth. However, in 1984
and 1985 excellent harvests occurred. Although favorable weather
played a part, both Western and official sources ascribed
additional credit to the agricultural reforms.
Data as of July 1987
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