More Troubles on the Farm

Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko glanced up at gray, glowering skies as he stepped out of his limousine at the Kremlin last week for a special plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee. The weather must have been very much on his mind. For the sixth consecutive year, the Soviet climate had played havoc with grain crops. The yield, according to Western estimates, was expected to measure only 170 million metric tons, well below the 220 million metric tons needed for annual consumption.

Moscow had been swept with rumors that Chernenko might step down at the plenum because of poor health. But the sole topic at the one-day session was agriculture. Chernenko outlined an ambitious 20-year development scheme, calling for the reclamation of 44.5 million acres of desert and swamp land, mainly in the country's temperate southern regions, by the end of the century. In the meantime, Moscow will have to make up for this year's poor harvest with extensive imports. Ironically, help is coming from the Reagan Administration. Under a new five-year grain-sale pact, the Soviets have been buying corn and wheat from the U.S. at near record levels since July.