TURKMENISTAN’S AGRICULTURAL CRISIS MAY SPUR PRIVATIZATION.

President Saparmurad Niazov told a State Council session yesterday that the 1996 harvest was only 480,000 tons of grain and only 450,000 tons of raw cotton, instead of the planned 1 million tons and 1.4 million tons, respectively. Niazov called for "immediate solutions" by handing croplands over to the producers. (UPI, December 16). In a major policy address in September, Niazov urged leasing former kolkhoz and sovkhoz croplands to private producers for terms up to 10 years.

Kuchma in South Korea.