According to scattered Bulgarian press reports the supply of farm machinery is inadequate for the needs, unbalanced as to composition, and inferior in design and physical condition. Many of the available tractors and combines are overage and obsolete. The situation is aggravated by chronic shortages of spare parts for both domestic and imported equipment. Production of parts is inhibited by its relatively low profitability, despite incentives offered by the government. Under the Sixth Five-Year Plan farm machinery valued at 780 million leva is to be delivered to agriculture from domestic sources and from the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON--see Glossary). This machinery is to include more powerful tractors and grain combines, milking machines, and sprinkler irrigation systems. Machinery is also to be provided for the harvesting of corn, sugar beets, cotton, rice, fruits, and vegetables and for the harvesting and processing of feed crops. Adequate information on the progress of the mechanization program during the first two years of the five-year period is not available, but there is evidence that shortages of spare parts and trained operators continued to immobilize substantial numbers of farm machines. MARKETING The marketing of farm products has been geared to the fixed five-year plan quotas for sales to the state. It is based on bilateral contracts between trusts in the food-processing industry and agroindustrial complexes or their constituent units. Contracts are concluded for a five-year period and are broken down by years. They cover the entire farm output specified in the counterplans at prices officially revised on January 1, 1973. The price system includes bonuses for quality; these bonuses are payable only after a specified portion of the contracted quantity has been delivered and vary in relation to the total volume of product delivered. The intent of the bonuses is to stimulate product improvement without encouraging production beyond the planned limits. Excess production would destroy the balance of the plan. Provisions of the marketing contracts were worked out by the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Arbitration Commission with the agreement of the government departments involved. Provisions concerning the performance of contractual obligations were strengthened compared with those previously in force. They established financial incentives and sanctions not only for the contracting organizations but also for their top managers as individuals, based upon the end results of their joint work.