EX-AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS SAYS RUSSIA WILL PRIVATIZE

Despite economic and political turmoil, a former U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture believes Russia will continue to move toward a free-market system.

Peter Myers of Sikeston, who served in Washington in the Reagan administration, maintained Monday that the majority of Russian people want to move away from a state-run economy to a free-market system.

Younger people in particular, he said, want to see private ownership of farms.

Myers spoke to Southeast Missouri State University students from a University Studies class and several agriculture classes Monday in Rhodes Hall of Science. Among those in attendance from the University Studies class was his daughter, Kristina Myers Coppage of Matthews.

Myers returned earlier this month from a 30-day trip to Russia to assist in efforts to privatize collective farms.

The Sikeston area agribusiness man was part of a four-member team commissioned by the International Finance Corp.

Myers was based in Nizhy Novgorod, a city of about 3 million people.

He said Russia faces serious economic and political problems.

"One of the biggest problems that Russia has is that the currency is not stable at all," said Myers.

The value of the ruble continually declines in comparison to the U.S. dollar. Myers said that when his trip started it took more than 600 rubles to equal one American dollar. By the time his trip ended, it took 800 rubles to equal a dollar.

"The political situation is very, very difficult," he said.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin must deal with opposition from the Congress of People's Deputies, the legislative body made up largely of former communists, Myers said.

"They (the former communists) don't want privatization," he said.

For those trying to make changes, "the political system is working against them and the currency is working against them," said Myers.

But he maintained the public won't accept a return to communism. That's aided by the medium of television, said Myers.

"Every home I went in there had a television set. They might not have had indoor plumbing, but they had a television set," he said.

"The cities are pretty dark because everything over there is coal-fired," said Myers, referring to the air pollution problem.

Russia has been a good market for wheat and other U.S. agricultural commodities. But Myers predicted that in the long run a free-market Russia will be an agricultural competitor of the U.S.

Myers said the U.S. needs to "export some of our technology" to help improve Russian agriculture. Such an effort, he said, would help promote a more stable world.

He spoke highly of the Russian people he met. But he said old habits remained in terms of the operation of collective farms.

"They've been told what to do for 70 years," he said.

Myers' team reviewed operations at six, 12,000-acre farms. He said there were many instances of poor farming practices.

While combines were standard equipment on the farms, Myers also saw an agricultural display promoting the latest in pitch forks, which, he said, was "not my idea of modern farming."

Harvesting is a major problem at the collective farms. "They are told by the state when to harvest grain."

As a result, said Myers, grain is often harvested too early and must be run through a dryer, resulting in substantial crop losses.

"There is no logic to some of the things they do," he said.

Horse power is still important on many farms, he noted.

At one farm, women worked seven days a week milking cows three times a day. The livestock in many instances were kept in dirty pens.

The roadways were in terrible shape, he said. "There is not a farm-to-market road in the Southeast Missouri hills that is not better than their super highways."

In addition, he said, motorists drive recklessly on the roads, even to the point of driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid the countless potholes.

"Luckily, most people don't own cars," he quipped.

Still, he said, the roads are adequate for moving farm products, and the country has good rail and river transportation systems.

Although the large, collective farms still remain at this time, 30 percent of the food consumed in Russia is raised on small plots. Myers said that points to how successful a system of private farms could be.

"I think they'll do it," he said.