USSR: Measures of Economic Growth and Development, 1950-80

Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421
Table 4
Comparison of Official and Estimated Grain Output,
1950-62 a
Grain Production b Excess of
(million metric tons) Officially
Reported Output
Official Data Estimated Over Estimated
Production'
(percent)
l@___..._.__8L___..._. .__. .. . .?§ ___;“_~7.___.7
1951 19 I so -1.2
.l.?§_2... ..__...._.9l_ ._. _92_... °-° ___
1953 g
s2 __ s_3_ — 1_.v2H_~_Z___g
i§5Z§fQll§i. Ti 81*.-- —.1~1
19.5.5 .. 491 , 103- 3-9
1.?.L§§......-@.- ..-._-i__-_..-.1.1-.3_**-.
12:£_,._49§_.-. . .-_ 109 _-.-..5-L
1958 W 141 125____gv_“___12.8
1951......-__1z§...... . - 190 ,__2_@,.<>_ -.
av”... - -. l.14-_*Z1s>9.--.--_. -
1.?91..._- . .._.-_.__J_ ____..-_as 5 ;o.o_ ___g
1962 14s 115 28.7
3 CIA/RR ER 64-33, Production ofGrain in the USSR, October
1964, p. l6.
b These statistics include the grain equivalent of corn harvested in an
immature stage which is no longer included in Soviet statistics on
grain production.
moisture content of 22 percent.“ Moisture content of
other bunker weight grains varies widely, depending
on harvesting conditions as well as degree of ripeness.
No aggregated data on moisture content at the time
of harvest are published.
Meat statistics have become more inclusive over time.
Between the 1920s and 1940s the definition of meat
was expanded from beef, veal, pork, and mutton to
include poultry, rabbit, and fat from all types of
animals. By l954, edible offal had been added to the
"° F.G. Dolgushevskiy and A. G. Khristich, SeI'skokh0zyaystven-
naya statistika s osnovami ekonomicheskoy statistiki, Moscow,
I976, p. 94. Reporting corn in a standard 22 percent moisture
content is similar to a bunker weight concept inasmuch as 22
percent is the upper limit of moisture at which husked ears can be
stored in slatted cribs where they will dry by spring to the 14-15
percent moisture needed for safe warm-weather storage.
definition of meat." Approximately in I956. the defi-
nition of meat was expanded again to include horse,
camel, and other minor meats.“ Published data are
available from 1950 covering the broader definition of
output.
In 1965, the USSR revised its method of reporting the
size of livestock herds. While this did not result in
definitional changes, it may have caused statistics for
subsequent years to be less accurate than earlier ones.
Prior to I965, the annual census of livestock on l
January was taken by enumerators who visited social-
ized farms during the first weeks of January. ln 1965
the livestock census was discontinued. Herd numbers
for 1 January are now derived from the monthly and
quarterly livestock reports submitted by these farms
to the Central Statistical Administration. The change
in procedure was ascribed to the improved quality of
farm bookkeeping and to the increasing share of
livestock in the socialized sector. Numbers of pri-
vately owned livestock on l January are taken from
accounting records of rural councils.” As in the pre-
1965 period, local statistical offices spotcheck private
sector livestock reporting by surveying l0 to 15
percent of households with privately owned holdings.
D. Comparability with Western Statistics
Soviet agricultural output statistics are often not
directly comparable with those used to measure agri-
cultural output in the West. Coverage is frequently
broader and the quality of the Soviet product is often
lower than that of Western counterparts. This lack of
comparability clearly affects comparisons of levels of
output and can complicate comparisons of growth in
agricultural output over time. International compari-
sons overstate the relative position of the USSR unless
" Offal is defined in footnote l0.
“ for a complete discussion of these statistical revisions, see Nancy
Nimitz, Soviet Statistics of Meat and Milk Output: A Note on
Their Comparability Over Time, RM 2326, the Rand Corp.,
February, I959.
"° Rural councils (soviets) are the local administrative agencies of
the central government. Certain agricultural matters are included
in their administrative responsibility for local trade and irfdustry.
265
Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421