La planification socialiste du complexe agro-alimentaire : l'exemple de la RDA
Authors: Schmidt Walter 
Published: October 2009

Socialist planning of the Farming-Food Complex : the example of the Democratic

Republic of Germany - 1) The German United Socialist Party (SED) during its 8th Conference emphasized that the needs of the workers occupy a fundamental place in a socialist economy. Planned objectives are real objectives and also objectives in the class-struggle which suppose the commitment of millions of men (workers becoming owners of the means of production), their initiatives, their desire to overcome difficulties, to develop innovations, and to use each individual's experience in the service of all.

The main goal of a five-year plan is to raise the material and cultural standard of living of the population. This objective is attained by a high level of development of socialist production,, greater efficiency by means of scientific and technical progress, and greater productivity of labour (in industry the growth aimed at is 35 °/c-37 % for 1971-5).

The planning of the food sector is part of national economic planning - it organizes and realizes a supply of foodstuffs corresponding to the needs of the population.

The needs of men are the aim of socialist planning. Demand is only a part of the needs which can be surveyed, determined and planned on three levels. Professor Schmidt concentrates on the second level - the distribution of consumption according to the structure of the needs.

For the planning of the structure of food needs (forecasting) and that of the structure of food demand (annual planning) the structures of production and consumption must be know. There are 2.3 million workers in farming and foodstuffs, in other words more than half the total number of active workers. The foodstuffs consumed are provided by the nation's farms (77 %) and by imports (33 %).

The consumer needs to have good quality food at his disposal at prices that are stable and accessible to all, food that contributes to the health, the well-being and the happiness of men. These are objective needs. But there are also subjective needs (for example needs that arise from habit - the consumption of too much food, food too rich in calories, tobacco or alcohol). In order to reconcile these needs, ranges of products have been worked out and are available on the market - special foods for children, diets, food low in calories but tasty... These products are on sale in supermarkets and in some country shops. The food industry has also sought to balance vitamins, starch, sugar, iron.

2) The results of research into food products provide precise and scientifically valid bases for the objectives (quantitative and qualitative) adopted in the planning of needs (forecasting, mean and short-term planning).

. This advance in scientific knowledge enables realistic partial objectives for one stage of development to be determined, while the taking into account of the possibility of changes in consumption habits (subjective factor) may lead to corrections in the plan's objectives being determined.

The planning of the food industry may be achieved :

— as a complex plan concerning all the sectors of the food economy

— as a complex plan in the different regions of the GDR.

This planning requires continuous, persevering work, carried out in close cooperation with the workers, the cooperative farmers, and the workers in allied industries. The plan is realized by means of production contracts. A complex system of economic regulations (including the fixing of stable prices) orientates firms towards the attainment of the strategic objectives of the development of the food economy. This plan, worked out by complex mathematical and statistical methods must be comprehensible for every worker and must encourage his initiatives in the carrying out of planned tasks. This is the « perfecting of planning and management » as defined by the 8th Conference of the SED.