That and lysenkoism. The farmers didn't get to decide what work was carried out on their fields, that was decided by central planners. So if some idiot decided "hey, I bet we could increase crop yields by burying nuclear waste under the field" (not a joke, that actually happened) then better hope you like having a glowing shovel. Aside from ridiculous incidents like that and the apathy you mentioned there was all kinds of waste and inefficiency; purely because trying to plan the work of millions of field workers from an office in the city while primarily playing office politics and trying not to be killed by them isn't doable.