cialized trusts. The
consolidation increased the average size of the state enterprises from
16,000 acres to 34,600 acres of farmland. The enterprises comprised
about 3,000 state farms on an area of over 5 million acres. Romanian
sources reported that the reorganization was intended to bring
management closer to production, to ensure improvement in all aspects of
farm operation, to intensify concentration and specialization of
production, and gradually to attain agro-industrial integration.

In official terminology, state agricultural enterprises will operate on
the principle of economic self-administration. The enterprises will be
responsible for their subordinate farms and will supervise operations
according to the principle of internal economic administration. Briefly,
this means that the agricultural enterprises and the farms must be
financially self-sustaining, that directors of enterprises and farms are
accorded a certain measure of discretion in planning and organizing
production and in the use of resources, and that financial rewards
beyond the normal pay accrue to each farm's managerial personnel and
workers in accordance with the farm's own performance, regardless of the
results obtained by other farms within the enterprise or by the parent
enterprise itself.

Individual state farms, nevertheless, have no juridical status or bank
accounts, nor may they enter into direct relation with other economic
entities outside the state agricultural enterprise of which they are a
part. In large measure, they remain subject to the direction of the
enterprise management. Information on the division of authority between
the agricultural enterprises and the Department of State Agriculture in
the ministry is not available. Complaints have been voiced in the
Romanian press about unwarranted interference by higher authorities in
the management of both the farms and the agricultural enterprises.

Workers on state farms and other state agricultural units are salaried
employees of the state, entitled to paid annual vacations, social
security and medical assistance, allocations for children, age or
disability pensions, and various other benefits provided by law for
employees of state enterprises. During slack periods, workers may be
allowed up to 120 days of unpaid vacation per year, without losing
seniority or other rights.

State farms are the best endowed agricultural units in the country.
Although they included only about 17