"pearl"  wrote in message news:...
...
> it shows the reason *why* imports went up from *near zero*:

Correction:  .... why imports went up from self-sufficiency | + | .

...
> Soviet grain production increases (predominantly in Russia and
> Kazakhstan) of about 60 million tonnes per year from the early
> 1960s to the late 1970s was not sufficient to support the increase
> in livestock inventories. For this reason, Soviet imports of grain
> increased from near zero in 1970 to 36 million tonnes per year in
> the 1980s (Shend, 1993).
> ..'
> http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5069e/y5069e03.htm
...