The situation was particularly disappointing to the leadership because in 1970 it had embarked on a comprehensive long-range program for raising agricultural productivity and output through the introduction of industrial production methods on the farms. To that end the country's farms were consolidated into 170 agroindustrial complexes intended to bring the advantages of scientific organization, concentration and specialization of production, mechanization, and automation to all phases of agricultural work. Planning for these complexes has been concentrated at the highest government level, and any modification of the obligatory plans requires the approval of the Council of Ministers. In this process the traditional distinction between state and collective property has been blurred and is slated for gradual elimination; the same is true for the differences in status of industrial and farm workers. The new approach to farm organization was taken despite severe shortages of adequately trained management and technical personnel and in the face of the demonstrated superior productivity of tiny farm plots cultivated for their own benefit by individual farm and industrial workers. It is difficult to arrive at a comprehensive and balanced assessment of agricultural development and of the situation in the 1972/73 agricultural year because of the continuing changes in the agricultural regime and the lack of essential data. All published information, including critical comments, emanates from controlled official sources. The press output tends to concentrate on problem areas, treating other aspects in uninformative generalities. Officials and press have been especially silent on the question of the farmers' reactions to the new agricultural order, beyond claiming the farmers' whole-hearted support for every new agricultural edict. CLIMATE AND SOILS Natural conditions are generally favorable for agriculture. Fertile soils and a varied climate make possible the cultivation of a wide variety of field crops, fruits, and vegetables, including warm-weather crops, such as cotton, tobacco, rice, sesame, and grapes. Frequent summer droughts, however, lead to wide fluctuations in crop yields and necessitate extensive irrigation. The Stara Planina (literally, Old Mountain), or Balkan Mountains, divide the country into several climatic and agricultural regions. The broad Danubian tableland that lies north of these mountains has a continental climate, except for a narrow strip along the Black Sea coast. Cold winter winds sweep across the plateau from the Eurasian land mass, causing prolonged periods of frost, which tend to damage orchards and vineyards. There are 180 to 215 frost-free days in the year, and summers are hot. A continental climate also prevails in the Sofia Basin and in the region surrounding the headwaters of the Struma River.