Plan
1960196519661967196819691970
Grains216.7324.6n.a.n.a.n.a.n.a.659.0*
Breadgrains**(197.1)(296.6)(389.3)(445.0)(494.0)(533.4)(593.0)
Potatoes 23.4 21.2108.0115.9166.0238.8475.0
Rice 4.6 10.2 10.5 11.3n a.n.a. 24.0
Cotton 16.1 24.6 24.7 21.9 18.5 25.0 34.0
Tobacco 8.1 13.3 13.7 13.1 14.9 17.1 16.0
Sugar beets 72.7 90.2132.9138.5n.a.n.a.140.0
Vegetables 71.3140.9156.5172.2180.8283.8224.0
Fruits, deciduous 25.3 39.7 47.8 40.7 58.6n.a. 69.5
Fruits, citrus 1.7 2.0 2.2 2.6n.a.n.a. 5.6
Grapes 22.3 42.9 54.1 48.5 61.1n.a. 94.4
n.a.—not available
* Except for the data on fruits, all figures in this column are rounded to the nearest thousand tons.
** Wheat, rye, and corn.
+ The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1966-70) calls for more than this amount.

In the absence of information on the planting of fruit trees and vines, the fruit production trends of recent years provide the only indication of the extent to which the fruit production program of the five-year plan may be realized. Available data through 1968 for deciduous fruits and grapes and through 1967 for citrus fruits indicate that the 1970 goals for grapes and citrus fruits may not be reached. Production of citrus fruits would have to more than double in three years, whereas an increase of only 53 percent was achieved in the 1961-67 period. Similarly, grape output would have to rise by 54 percent in two years, compared with an increase of 42 percent in the preceding three years. The outlook for deciduous fruits is more favorable. The needed output increase of 20 percent over two years is well within previously attained limits.

Table 11. Livestock in Albania, 1960, 1964-66, and 1970 Plan (in thousands)

Plan*
19601964196519661977
Horses 49 44 44 44 n.a.
Mules 17 20 20 21 n.a.
Donkeys 57 60 60 60 n.a.
Cattle 420 427 424 27 475
Cows 146 157 156 158 n.a.
Oxen 100 87 n.a. n.a. 139
Buffalo 7 5 5 5 n.a.
Sheep1,5461,6821,6371,6701,800
Goats1,1041,1991,1751,2001,400
Hogs 130 147 141 142 n.a.
Poultry1,5801,6711,7221,7463.000
n.a.—not available.
* Fourth Five-Year Plan (1965-70).

Information on livestock numbers is much more sketchy. The dearth of published data and repeated official pronouncements indicate unsatisfactory progress in this farm sector, particularly with regard to the high-priority target for cattle raising. An important cause of this lag has been an acknowledged shortage of fodder. Another major reason has been an officially induced transfer of livestock from individual peasant ownership to the collective and state farms, where it is subject to the much-criticized negligent attitude of the peasants toward state and communal property. About 60 percent of the cattle and sheep and 85 percent of the hogs were kept on state and collective farms in 1969, as against only about 36 and 64 percent, respectively, in 1964.

Collective farm managers and local government officials have blamed the fodder shortage on the diversion of pastures and meadows to the production of bread grains. Statistical evidence indicates that the output of feed grains declined by about 40 percent from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s but that the loss of fodder from grazing lands and meadows was compensated fourfold through increased production of forage crops. The validity of the explanation offered by the farm and village officials was vigorously denied in the theoretical monthly journal of the Party's Central Committee, which attributed the fodder shortage to a failure by collective farmers to adopt improved methods of crop production and to exploit all available fodder resources. In January 1970 all basic Party organizations in farming areas were urged to eliminate distrust and every conservative idea and harmful tendency that stood in the way of the rapid development of cattle raising and to see to it that the existing gap between the collective farms and private plots was gradually eliminated.

Government efforts to improve livestock breeds and yields through selective breeding, artificial insemination, and better management practices have also been impeded by peasant apathy. Although yields of up to 5,500 pounds of milk per cow were obtained on some state farms in 1966 and yields of about 3,300 pounds to 3,950 pounds on the more efficient lowland collective farms, the average yield of milk per cow on all lowland collective farms in that year was only about 1,750 to 2,200 pounds, and a large number of upland farms obtained even less.

The latest available official Albanian livestock statistics are for the year 1964. Data for 1965 and 1966 have been published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The Fourth Five-Year Plan indicates the numbers planned for some of the livestock categories in 1970 through percentage increases expected to be attained over the numbers in 1965. In the case of cattle, the largest increase by far has been planned for draft oxen—60 percent as against only 12 percent for all cattle—in an effort to reduce a draft power shortage. This increase would inevitably be at the expense of the growth in the numbers of cows and young stock.

The growth of productive livestock herds, excluding draft animals, lagged very substantially in relation to the increase in population, at least through 1966. This has entailed a significant worsening of the initially very meager supply of livestock products. According to estimates published by the FAO, total annual meat production, including all types of meat in terms of carcass weight but excluding edible offals, increased from an average of 40,000 tons in the 1952-56 period to 50,000 tons in 1967. The output in 1967 implies a per capita daily meat availability of only about 2.5 ounces, including bones. A similar situation prevailed with regard to dairy and poultry products because there were only about 75 low-production cows per 1,000 population and one head of inferior poultry per capita.

Total agricultural production, which was planned to increase at an average annual rate of 11.5 percent or from 71 to 76 percent for the five-year plan period as a whole, consistently fell short of the targets in the 1966-69 period and was not likely to attain the 17-percent increase planned for 1970. Thus, for instance, the actual output increase achieved in 1969 was only about 10 percent as against a planned rise of 22.1 percent and in 1968, similarly, about 1.6 as against 12 percent.