In 1985 some 95% of the country's agricultural land was in the socialist sector (state enterprises or cooperatives). The basic farming entity in the mid-1980s was the unified agricultural cooperative, or farmers' collective. Collective farms had increased in area by 6.5 times since 1950. In 1985 there were 1,677 collectives with 997,798 members. There were 226 state farms, which were officially owned and operated by the government employing 166,432 workers. Collective farms held about 43,000 km² (plus about 870 km² in private plots), and state farms held 21,000 km². Members of collective farms were permitted to cultivate personal plots of 5,000 m² or less and to maintain some livestock. Such personal plots reached a peak of popularity in the early 1960s, when they had accounted for 3,550 k