Something for the Soil

In the Kremlin this week, the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee is pondering the grave crisis in agriculture that has made it virtually impossible for Russia to feed itself.

Up for debate is Nikita Khrushchev's sweeping plan for expansion of the chemical industry to raise fertilizer production from 20 million tons this year to 108 million tons by 1970. Fertilizer has become a kind of ritual incantation; Nikita is obviously convinced that only its vastly increased use can raise production enough to avoid drastic food cuts or permanent dependence on expensive foreign farm products, such as the 11 million tons of wheat the Soviets are buying from the West. Asks a current Moscow joke: "What was Stalin's last mistake?" Answer: "He stockpiled enough grain for only ten years."

Major new investments in the chemical industry are sure to force a cutback in consumer production, housing, possibly defense; but the situation on Russian farms warrants it. Yields this year have been poor in the Ukraine and Siberia. Last week the administrator for the Vir gin Lands, Khrushchev's pet farm project, openly admitted disaster in his regions as well, citing staggering examples of mismanagement and inefficiency.

Another obvious topic for the Moscow Party meeting is the split with Red China. Even as the Russian press was pleading for calm, Peking's delegates to the Communist World Peace Council in Warsaw noisily condemned Russia's "peaceful coexistence" policy, including the nuclear test ban. Russian delegates retorted, as New China News Agency put it indignantly, by "banging the desks and uttering catcalls."

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