.

The basic reasons for the failure to attain the planned farm output
targets, apart from their magnitude, lie in the difficulty of inducing
peasants to relinquish age-old traditions in favor of modern scientific
farming methods and of motivating them to work industriously in a
collective farm system that they strongly reject. Although problems of
adaptation and motivation are also present in industry, the much smaller
size of the industrial labor force and the presence of foreign
technicians in key areas mitigate the difficulties and make possible a
somewhat more rapid rate of growth.

Reliable information on Albania is scarce. Few foreigners capable of
observing and evaluating conditions objectively have been able to visit
the country in the past twenty-five years. Articles from official
journals or newspapers available in English translation, which
constitute the major source of data, provide only a partial coverage and
must be used with caution because of a lack of means for verification.
Published statistics, available in detail to 1964 and nonexistent after
1967, leave many important gaps. Because of apparent shortcomings in the
underlying statistical methods, only data in physical terms can be
accepted with some degree of assurance as to their accuracy.

The economy is administered through a small number of specialized
ministries, and most information about it comes from Communist sources.
Control over labor is maintained through trade unions, which constitute
a political arm of the Party (see ch. 6, Government Structure and
Political System). Economic activity is governed by a series of
five-year and annual plans prepared by the State Planning Commission in
accordance with Party directives.

Agriculture is organized into state and collective farms, which are
dependent upon machine-tractor stations for the performance of
mechanized farm operations. Industry is poorly balanced with regard to
the country's domestic needs and is heavily oriented toward exports.
Foreign trade primarily serves the purpose of obtaining needed resources
for the development of production. Limited domestic resources are only
partially developed, and the economy depends heavily on foreign economic
and technical assistance. The country's political orientation has
restricted the sources of such aid to other Communist states, and its
alignment with Communist China in the Sino-Soviet dispute brought about
the loss of Soviet support with s