It was a Hail Mary attempt at improving/diversifying crop yields across the USSR, since corn can potentially grow in places/soil compositions that don't work as well for winter wheat. It might have worked out as a cheaper/more plentiful source of animal feed, and so forth. Instead, they botched the whole thing and didn't use the right types of fertilizer, so the whole campaign was a giant wet fart.

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Didn't it also go along with privatizing tractors and generally fucking up agriculture with that, since it became a clusterfuck to maintain and repair them when that was the responsibility of individual farmers instead of having centralized facilities for it?

[–] Findom_DeLuise@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

Yup [CW: NATOpedia]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev#Agricultural_policy

Khrushchev sought to abolish the Machine-Tractor Stations (MTS) which not only owned most large agricultural machines such as combines and tractors but also provided services such as plowing, and transfer their equipment and functions to the kolkhozes and sovkhozes (state farms).[159] After a successful test involving MTS which served one large kolkhoz each, Khrushchev ordered a gradual transition—but then ordered that the change take place with great speed.[160] Within three months, over half of the MTS facilities had been closed, and kolkhozes were being required to buy the equipment, with no discount given for older or dilapidated machines.[161] MTS employees, unwilling to bind themselves to kolkhozes and lose their state employee benefits and the right to change their jobs, fled to the cities, creating a shortage of skilled operators.[162] The costs of the machinery, plus the costs of building storage sheds and fuel tanks for the equipment, impoverished many kolkhozes. Inadequate provisions were made for repair stations.[163] Without the MTS, the market for Soviet agricultural equipment fell apart, as the kolkhozes now had neither the money nor skilled buyers to purchase new equipment.[164]