Planning in the field of collective agriculture has also been highly centralized, at least through 1971, despite measures introduced at the end of 1970 to reduce the number of plan indicators for individual farms. Detailed instructions on crop and livestock production and on the volume of farm products to be delivered to the state have been handed down to farms by higher authorities insufficiently familiar with their natural and economic conditions. This method of planning has entailed significant losses through improper use of land and other resources. The relatively minor relaxation of central controls beginning in 1971 was intended to eliminate this waste. The extent to which central controls over farming operations were retained even after the announced decentralization of agricultural planning was illustrated by the Grand National Assembly's enactment of a law toward the end of 1971 concerning correct methods of producing and using livestock fodder. Information on the method of planning for state farms was not available. PRICE SYSTEM As in all centrally directed economies, prices are set by the government. In 1967 the National Party Conference called for a reform of the price system on the grounds that the prevailing prices failed to ensure the desired balance in economic development or to promote greater efficiency in production and foreign trade. After four years of intensive debate, a new price law was enacted in December 1971. Preliminary information on the provisions of the law indicated that prices would continue to be fixed by the government, although the method of calculating them had been modified. In contrast to the announced policy of decentralizing economic management, the law provided for strengthening central controls over prices. Until March 1970 there was no unified control over prices. The State Planning Committee and the Ministry of Finance administered industrial wholesale prices, and the State Committee for Prices had jurisdiction over prices of consumer goods and government procurement prices for farm products. In 1970 the reorganized State Committee for Prices was given authority to control all prices. Representation on the committee has been provided for the State Planning Committee; the ministries of finance, domestic trade, and foreign trade; the Central Statistical Bureau; and the Central Council of the General Union of Trade Unions. Participation by delegates from economic ministries and other organs is to be ensured at all sessions in which problems of interest to them are brought up for discussion.