Agrarian Crises, =economic crises ofoverproduction in the agriculture ofcapitalist countries. They are manifestedprimarily in a relative overproduction ofagricultural goods and the accumulation ofenormous unsold stocks of them. At thesame time, there is an increase in the sizeof farmers' debts (under modern conditions,mostly to mortgage banks); many smalland medium producers are ruined.Competition becomes more acute. Only largerfarms using up-to-date machinery andtechnology can survive. Agrarian crises areaccompanied by accelerated concentrationand centralisation of production in capitalistagriculture. The most general cause ofagricultural crises is exacerbation of thebasic contradiction of capitalism---thatbetween the social character of productionand the private form of appropriation.Besides, each crisis has its own, specificcauses, connected with the changes inagricultural production on the scale of theworld capitalist economy. One feature ofagrarian crises is that they are not strictlyperiodic and are usually very prolonged.The first agrarian crisis began in the early1870s and lasted until the late 1890s; thesecond lasted from 1920 and up to theSecond World War. After the war, in1948, a new agrarian crisis began whichcontinued until the early 1970s. The mainreason of agrarian crises tending to beso prolonged is the monopoly of privateownership of the land and the existenceand growth of ground rent, which makesagricultural produce more expensive andtherefore more difficult to sell. High groundrent prevents enormous capital from beingused productively in agriculture. Thisobstructs the rapid large-scale renewal offixed capital, the attainment of higherlabour productivity, a reduction of productioncosts and, in the long run, of prime costsof the goods, which would have facilitatedtheir sales. Another reason that agriculturalcrises invariably last a long time is theexistence of a large number of small-scalefarmers who cannot reduce production toget out of a crisis. For these reasons,curtailment of production caused by a price drophappens more slowly in agriculture thanin industry, if at all. Overproduction ofagricultural goods is relative: millions ofpeople in the capitalist world are starving.With the advance of state-monopolycapitalism, the capitalist state introducesanti-crisis measures, curtailing agriculturalproduction and keeping agricultural pricesat a certain level whenever a tendencyappears for them to decline. State--monopoly regulation of agriculture promotesconcentration of large-scale capitalistproduction through the ruin of farmers andpoor peasants which converts them intowage-labourers. Since World War II,agriculture in the capitalist countries hasbeen growing increasingly intensive owingto the widespread use of machinery andchemicals, which has caused furtherconcentration of production and the mass ruinand disappearance of small andmediumsized farms. Even this, however, has failedto prevent agrarian crises, since only anend to capitalist production relations, ashas been shown by the experience of thesocialist countries, is capable of doing so. Accumulation of Capital, ="employingsurplus-value as capital, reconverting itinto capital...'' (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I,p. 543). In his teaching on surplus value,Marx examines the way it derives fromcapital, but in his teaching on theaccumulation of capital he shows how capitaloriginates from surplus value. Undercapitalist expanded reproduction (see Reproduction, Capitalist), surplus value fallsinto two parts---accumulated and spent,into capital and profit. When buying labourpower, the capitalist pays for it out ofsurplus value---the result of the workers'past unpaid labour. Such is the class essenceof capitalist accumulation. The amountaccumulated depends on a number offactors. First, on the size of the surplus value.The greater its size, the greater, also, arethe opportunities