(Interview by Laver Stroka with agricultural expert Faik Hito Islami)
L.S: – Ironically, an economist during a television talk talked about the failure of socialism in the agricultural sector and as a whole system. What do you think of this?
F.H. Islami: – Some cadres and "scholars" were doing "Professor" yesterday with studies that prove the opposite of what they claim today. This metamorphosis is unthinkable but fashionable. Through irony they try to give themselves the image of great personalities in front of viewers of these funny performances. To date, neither this nor all of his colleagues entitled "professors" in the field of socialist economy have offered a new, simple or academic study variant to deny the advantages of that economy and the system I myself have made so much echo. This "professor" and many such economists have had enough time to interpret at an academic level, though the socialist system as an economic-social system was "failed" as claimed in television interviews. According to this mentality, socialism has "failed" because it was God's will. These gentlemen have earned the most from socialism and now have more capitalism exempted by bringing something new, but only a priori conclusions. This amoral trickery for close personal interests is painful and disgusting to honest people.
L.S: - What can you tell us as an expert in the field of socialist agriculture?
FH Islami: I have very good knowledge in the field of agriculture and I can say with certainty that Albanian agriculture in the socialist system experienced a highly technical and scientific revolution. This colossal transformation has left little to the point today with capitalist privatization reforms land and agricultural aids sectors that have brought it to the medieval level. Now for land use in rural areas, the plug, the ox and the power of labor are used. Anyone with an average intellectual formation who lived in the era of socialism and today in the "new system" cannot believe someone who says that socialism failed, but accepts the opposite that it is destroyed by those who do not.
L.S: – Can you talk more specifically about the transformation of agriculture into the period of socialism?
F.H. Islami: Yes. Let's refer to the facts: The first revolutionary step taken by the socialist state was agrarian reform. It had begun twice before liberation, but it was never finished. It started out from 50,000 ha of state land, 14,454 ha with owners, 90,133 ha with wealthy owners and 237,660 ha of small rural households. Reform was not just an arithmetic division of land, but a radical development program, followed by massive measures such as drainage and irrigation of existing lands. He distributed the land to 155,235 peasant families, realizing a century-old dream of our village. The reform aimed at boosting production and well-being. A series of scientific and operational measures brought wonderful results. Let us not forget that the main tool in this sector was the bullshit and the farmer with the force of the wing. In 75 percent of the territory at the national level, agriculture was the sector where the main activity was conducted.
L.S.: Why today is denied socialist transformation made in a country with deep medieval backwardness in all areas.
F.H. Islami: Economics professors reluctant to refer to production indicators: Easier work is what is not done! In 1938, the total agricultural production, in percentage from the state sector, was zero, while the private sector occupied 100 percent. Only in four years, in 1950, the state sector provided 4 percent of production, while the private sector fell to 94 percent and the cooperative sector initially (with the Solidarity Cooperative and 2-3 others) provided 2 percent of agricultural output general. By the end of 1960, the state sector grew to 22 percent, that of the cooperative to 54 percent, while the private sector fell to 24 percent. By the end of the 1980s, it found the state sector with agricultural enterprises with such economies, giving 29 percent of total production, while the cooperative sector provided 49 percent and the private sector provided only 22 percent. But the biggest revolution in agricultural land, especially in those areas, marked the biochemical study of soils.
It was achieved through two pedological studies and three full agrochemical studies, the agricultural land doubled to 700,000 ha in the early 1970s, was recognized in every detail of fertility and its kind throughout the country. This marks an unprecedented achievement by ranking our country near powerful countries! All sectors are located on a modern basis. Another colossal investment in the agrarian sector was drainage of clay soils. An area of 240,000 ha of clay soils was reclaimed and drained with ceramic pipes, turning them into "biological plants" of agricultural production. Complex studies were conducted for seedlings, breeds of cattle, livestock and mammals.
L.S: – What was achieved in agricultural production until 1990?
F.H. Islami: Marx said, "It will win the socio-economic system that will bring the highest yield"! To make it easier for deep perceptions of the reality of agriculture, socialism, we must bring productivity performance together with the agriculture that the socialist system has found. In 1938 the average yield in wheat production was 7 tons / hectare, while in corn was 12 quintals per hectare. To understand the reader and these economists, all the critics of socialism, then wheat production on the field was only twice the amount of seed that was thrown to the ground.
Of the 14 percent of the irrigated land surface, which found the new socialist system, in the late 1990s, when the "old" system was restored, which has made its fans "calmer" economists, the land planted with crops in 423,000 ha were all under water, guaranteed, equal to over 60 percent of the land cultivated with field crops. Agriculture in the socialist system became a modern sector of expanded production. If before the socialist system 7 harvested hectares / ha were harvested in almost 140,000 ha, 212-213,000 ha of hilly and mountainous land were planted and with a yield of 30.5 ha per hectare. This amount of grain is equal to that imported today from Serbia, spending about 82-86 million euros. This amount of grain, honored "professors" of the economy, fans of capitalism, was provided with a quarter of the fund currently spent on imports. In corn, the socialist system, led by idealistic system scientists such as Hysen Laçei, Ahmet Osja, Hysen Chobani and several thousands dedicated to the application of modern technologies, of scientific institutes, achieved the world's most advanced achievements.
Albania, in the socialist system, achieved unprecedented production records. In the production of corn, the seeds produced by our scientific institutes were reached. But the successes were not just in the field plants. There was success in all crops, livestock, etc. So in the agricultural sector, every employee or specialist of agriculture feels completely proud of his work and contribution that he gave to the shed, without taking what they did, but the homeland and the agricultural sector began to flourish as a aspect of modern agriculture, the merit of that system, unmatched by the disadvantages of the capitalist system currently being applied in Albania. Today agriculture is experiencing a complete destruction along with the producer village.
L.S: Did socialism fail in Albania?
FH Islami: "It was not the socialist system that failed, but the" reform "in the name of" preventing the return of capitalism to the village "of the Prime Minister in the early 1980's with the team of these" professors "who striped the peasant from the auxiliary economy (a little land for vegetables, 1-2 cows and some livestock for meat and milk, some pigs and rabbits, hens, etc.), while today they deny and ironize that period to wash their sins. This hit the village heavily, where more than 60% of the country's population lived. Only during the first year of its implementation, about 1 million livestock and cattle were consumed by villagers, creating a profound deficit in the production of meat, dairy, cheese, butter and eggs in the following period.
An unprecedented step, clothed with a riddle, does not testify to the failure of the system, despite the serious consequences it has brought. Socialism, undoubtedly smaller, remains more vital, more mobilizing for the measures, more acceptable for political-economic direction, and fairly, if political structures harmonize interests within society. Socialism in the field of agriculture just shone! Often people talk with hatred today about agricultural co-operatives, but it comes from ignorance. I say this because production always has social character and cannot be understood its modernization without cooperation. The colossal agrarian success was achieved with sweating and great sacrifices. The existing capitalist system is not being held today in Albania. It has been for thirty years to rule over a host of subjective and subjective factors. He has ended up as a non-social economic system, the most ugly application, by thieves and expropriators without human morals. An economic and social system can be accepted when it meets the interests of the majority of society, but capitalism where 55 oligarchs have the wealth of over 90 percent of all Albanians cannot be acceptable to people who have a look at the bald.
L.S: – Thank you!