Poor harvests in Romania spur private farm plots

Romania will allocate private plots of land to individuals to help boost the country's flagging agricultural production, President Nicolae Ceausescu announced. a departure from the nation's concept of collective farming, the decision reflects Romania's poor agricultural output this year.

"We must allot land to enterprises, workers, farmers, peasants -- isolated small plots," he agriculture officials in Bucharest. Mr. Ceausescu said certain foods for the home market, such as 12,000 tons of meat, had had to be made up from state reserves.