the state; provision of prescribed investment
and operating funds for the farm; payment for irrigation water,
machine-tractor station services, and other outstanding obligations; and
setting aside 2 percent of the income for social assistance to members.
Information on farm income levels is not available. Nominally, the
General Assembly of all the members is the highest ruling organ of the
collective farm, but actual control rests with the farm's basic Party
organization (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System).

An important feature of the state and collective farms is the small
private plot allotted to a member family for its own personal use. Since
1967, when these allotments were reduced in size, the maximum legal size
of the private plots, including the land under all farm buildings other
than the family dwelling, has ranged from 1,000 to 1,500 square meters
(about 10,750 to 16,150 square feet, or one-quarter to three-eighths of
an acre), depending upon the location and availability of irrigation.
The collective farm statute also entitles each family to maintain a few
domestic animals privately. Only one cow or one pig is authorized, but
up to ten or twenty sheep and goats may be allowed. In typical cases a
family may have a cow or pig and a few sheep or goats. More liberal
allowances for poor mountain farms may include both a cow and pig as
well as the maximum number of sheep and goats.

In 1964 there were thirty-eight large, centrally controlled state farms
with an average of about 7,700 acres of farmland, including about 4,800
acres of cultivated land. In 1968 the average size of the state farms,
the number of which had remained stable, was reported to be about 7,350
acres, a reduction of almost 600 acres since 1964. This decline in
acreage was brought about by a transfer of some state farmlands to small
collective farms as a means of increasing their viability. In 1964, 250
locally administered state farms were reported to average about 380
acres and have probably continued unchanged. In 1970 state farms
cultivated 20 percent of the total acreage under cultivation, and
collective farms worked 80 percent.

The number and average size of collective farms have varied widely as a
result of the continuing creation of new farms and the consolidation of
existing units. In the fall of 1969 there were 805 collective farms,
compared with 1,208 in 1967. The consolidated farms included 568 units
consisting