Only partial information is available on the use of investment funds. Roughly 40 percent of the investment in the 1962-69 period was devoted to construction and assembly work, and 33 percent was used to increase farm mechanization. It has not been made clear whether land improvement and irrigation are included in construction, but it seems likely that this is the case. Substantial funds were also invested in the expansion of orchards, vineyards, and livestock. Although significant advances were made in most of these areas, the level of farm mechanization and of irrigation remained low. In 1969 the equivalent of one fifteen-horsepower tractor was available for every 136 acres of arable land, and irrigated acreage constituted 6 percent of the arable area. The use of fertilizers lagged by comparison with other Eastern European countries. Credit Farm credit has been provided by the government through the Agricultural Bank, which was reconstituted as the Bank for Agriculture and the Food Industry in May 1971. Available information on the credit operations of the bank is limited to a few summary data on credits to collective farms. Information on the financing of state farms is lacking. As expressed by the bank's president, long-term credits for investment and short-term credits for production needs have been used by the state as levers for the economic and organizational development and for the consolidation of collective farms. Long-term credits granted during the 1962-69 period amounted to 6.4 billion lei, or an average of 800 million lei per year. During the same period the farms received about 30 billion lei in short-term production credits, or about 3.75 billion lei per year. The annual volume of investment credits increased sharply after 1967; it was reported to have reached 1.8 billion lei in 1970 and to have been planned at more than 2 billion lei for 1971. A rise was also reported in the yearly volume of production credit. Investment credits generally carry an annual 3-percent interest charge, but the interest rate may be reduced to 2 percent for economically weaker farms. Comparable information on production credit is not available, except for an official statement that a large part of it has been granted free of interest.