Re: Ukraine corn production
Yes. Russia too. The collective farm system imposed from 1929 across the USSR was effective at ensuring a basic minimum supply of agricultural products to the state at prices generally unfavourable to the producers. By the same coin, it was highly ineffective at developing the forces of production in agriculture overall. That's why the peasants' 'private plots', despite covering a tiny fraction of the land mass, played such a vital role in feeding the USSR. The abandonment of the kolkhoz model after 1991 meant that farming in many marginal areas ceased altogether, but in fertile areas with ready markets for the produce, it has flourished. The sanctions regime introduced in 2014 has also provided a useful stimulus to Russian agriculture, which is no longer undercut by EU dumping.
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