Personal Subsidiary Plot

under socialism a small plot of land around the house that is worked by the holder. It serves as an additional source of income for working people. The economic reason for the existence of personal subsidiary plots at a certain stage of the development of socialism is that social production does not yet fully provide society with agricultural products.

The personal subsidiary plot is of secondary importance and depends on the social economy. In the USSR the norms for using personal land and keeping productive livestock as personal property are defined for kolkhoz members by the Model Kolkhoz Regulations (1969); for production and office workers they are determined by special normative documents. As social production develops, the share of the personal subsidiary plots in gross agricultural output decreases: in 1972 the share was 27 percent, as against 37.2 percent in 1958. However, in the production of certain types of vegetables and animal products the personal subsidiary plots still play a notable part. In 1974 they accounted for 64 percent of the gross production of potatoes, 33 percent of the vegetables, 32 percent of the meat and milk, 41 percent of the eggs, and 20 percent of the wool. (In 1940 they produced 65 percent of the potatoes, 48 percent of the vegetables, 72 percent of the meat, 77 percent of the milk, 94 percent of the eggs, and 39 percent of the wool.)

Although the personal subsidiary plot is primarily for the holders’ consumption, working people sell part of the output at kolkhoz markets and to the state, consumer cooperatives, and kolkhozes and sovkhozes. The kolkhozes help with production on the personal subsidiary plots. They till them with their own machinery and draft animals, assist in selling the market output, and so on. The livestock maintained on the personal subsidiary plots receive feed primarily from the social sector and from agricultural lands outside the subsidiary plot.

Working people in the other socialist countries also have personal subsidiary plots. The share of the plots in gross agricultural output and personal incomes in the various countries depends on the structure and the level of development of productive forces in agriculture, the nature of the socialist transformations in agriculture, and other socioeconomic factors. The proportion of production in animal husbandry coming from personal subsidiary plots compared with that coming from other branches is especially large.

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