Subsistence agriculture in Romania- a modus vivendi?

The paper intends to make an analysis at regional level in the South-East region of the country in order to determine the present situation of agriculture in this region compared to the whole country. The paper investigates the crop structure, the irrigated area and the number of irrigation equipment in the region, the market orientation of farms, the type and development level of the non-agricultural activities, the labour force, and the specialization of farms. The objective of this paper is to analyze the regional agricultural characteristics and to determine the level of entrepreneurship in the area, so that farmers and regional policies might better interfere in order to help farmers adjust their production to the market and obtain a benefit. A comparison with the situation at the whole country will be also provided. The paper concludes that Romanian subsistence agriculture is still a “modus vivendi”, and most likely only time and the force of new technologies employed by the large commercial companies will partly solve the issue.subsistence, regional analysis, irrigations, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics,

Subsistence agriculture in Romania- a modus vivendi?

The paper intends to make an analysis at regional level in the South-East region of the country in order to determine the present situation of agriculture in this region compared to the whole country. The paper investigates the crop structure, the irrigated area and the number of irrigation equipment in the region, the market orientation of farms, the type and development level of the non-agricultural activities, the labour force, and the specialization of farms. The objective of this paper is to analyze the regional agricultural characteristics and to determine the level of entrepreneurship in the area, so that farmers and regional policies might better interfere in order to help farmers adjust their production to the market and obtain a benefit. A comparison with the situation at the whole country will be also provided. The paper concludes that Romanian subsistence agriculture is still a “modus vivendi”, and most likely only time and the force of new technologies employed by the large commercial companies will partly solve the issue

FARMERS’ CHOICES IN THE VEGETABLE SUPPLY CHAIN: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES

The dynamics of the agri-food systems plays an important role in the development and the fast increase of the number of modern retail stores. Several driving factors contribute to this situation such as industrialization, globalization and multinational systems, foreign direct investments. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the marketing relationship type of small vegetable farms and to find out the marketing choice of the farmers. In this regard, a qualitative and quantitative analysis was employed using Williamson’s governance structure and probit models. The results confirm that the marketing choice is very limited especially with regard to their participation in retail chains. The obtained coefficients have the expected signs and show that small farmers prefer to sell individually due to several constraints: high entry costs, scale factors and even price mechanisms.testing hypothesis, vegetable farms, retail chains.

ROMANIAN AGRICULTURE FROM SURVIVAL TO BUSINESS

The paper intends to make an analysis at regional level in the South-East Region of the country in order to determine the present situation of agriculture in this region compared to the whole country. The paper investigates the crop structure, the irrigated area and the number of irrigation equipment in the region, the market orientation of farms, the type and development level of the non-agricultural activities, the labour force, and the specialization of farms. The objective of this paper is to analyze the regional agricultural characteristics and to determine the level of entrepreneurship in the area, so that farmers and regional policies might better interfere in order to help farmers adjust their production to the market and obtain a benefit. A comparison with the situation at the whole country will be also provided. The paper concludes that Romanian subsistence agriculture is still a “modus vivendi”, and most likely only time and the force of new technologies employed by the large commercial companies will partly solve the issue.crop structure, subsistence agriculture, irrigation, regional analysis

Regional challenges on the South-East Romanian agricultural market

The present paper intends to make an analysis at regional level, respectively in Galati county, in order to determine the present situation of agriculture in the South-East region of Romania; it investigates the possibility of changing the crop structure towards more added value such as vegetables and energy crops (rapeseed, maize) in the region which better respond to the irrigation use. The paper reveals the situation of the irrigation system and the willingness of farmers in the region to pay for irrigations taking into consideration the gross margin value calculated by the main cultivated crops and the type of farms in the respective region. The main investigated aspects are the number of farms and their type, the ownership structure and the degree of land fragmentation, the utilized agricultural area by type of farms, the farm size. At the same time, the paper investigates the crop structure, the irrigated area and the number of irrigation equipment, the number of agricultural machinery and equipment, the market orientation of farms, the type and development level of the non-agricultural activities in the respective county and the specialization of farms in the South-East region of Romania

Are the collective actions in the Romanian fruits and vegetable sector a mean to access the retail chains?

The agricultural sector – in particular, the fruits and vegetable sector – finds itself in a relatively weak negotiation position due to the low level of concentration from which farmers approach the market. This is a weakness that can only be overcome by resorting to collective actions, i.e. the creation of producer organizations (POs) and producers groups (PGs). The concentration of supply of POs is quite different in the member countries, Romania having about 1% of production concentrated by producers groups and producers organizations. In this paper it is analysed the production (area, yield, number and size of fruits and vegetable farms) and the supply chain of fruit and vegetable sector in Romania. In addition the paper concentrates on the historical development of the POs and the role of the POs of the fruit and vegetable sector. It is important to clarify the impact of changes of the regulatory framework and the impact of the minimum requirements of the POs (minimum number of members, minimum value of marketed production) and the performance of producers and organizations groups

The dynamic of agrifood systems and institutional impacts on Romanian vegetable producers

The integration into the world trade and particularly along the chain of products with high value added, such as the vegetables chain, is considered as a promoter of growth and poverty alleviation (Aksoy and Beghin, 2005), even though this topic is subject to controversy. The paper’s purpose is to assess the role of collective organization forms in farmers’ participation in the Romanian supply chains, more exactly the possibility of farmers to adapt to the dynamic retail chains using new institutional economic theories. Having given the requirements imposed by retail chains to vegetable suppliers in terms of quantity, quality, frequency, food safety, it is expected that a small farmer cannot afford to participate individually in the retail chains due to high transaction costs, lack of scale and institutional changes required. In order to see the determinants of joining collective actions by vegetable producers, binary logit/probit models were used. The results signal out a small degree of farmers’ participation in collective forms of organizations. Also, they reveal a certain degree of uncertainty among stakeholders in terms of institutional arrangements and participation in collective action

APPLIED EU QUALITY SCHEMES AND ORGANIC PRODUCTS ON ROMANIAN MARKET

The aim of the paper is to identify the market potential for products produced and processed according to the EU quality schemes (organic products, PDO, PGI and TSG) on Romanian market. It provides a description of EU and national policies related to development of new markets like organic, PDO, PGI and TSG products, in particular PGI market. The structure of the paper contains an analysis of the organic products and, separately, the analysis of PGI products in Romania, with examples of products under EU quality schemes. During the analysis, we focused on the following aspects: legal frame, institutions and implementation of the quality schemes, supply side, demand side, trade, investments in the field, problems identified and tendencies. It puts in evidence the main characteristics of the country, tendencies, challenges and particularities, which define the groups of products analysed. The example given in text tries to show practical aspects and ways of implementation of the EU quality schemes, for Romania. The paper provides general conclusions resulted from the EU quality schemes implementations in Romania. In the same time, we identify a few difficulties regarding the expansion of the market. By present paper we open new discussions about trends in the field, future developments and models for a good standard of life

The Impact of Rural Development Program on Agriculture and Business/Rural Development in Lithuania and Romania: A Mirror Situation

The paper makes an analysis of the business and rural development in the two countries investigating the level of fund absorption from the rural development program mainly from Axis 1 and axis3. To compare the two axes we used a set of socio-economic indicators which were used in order to compare the measures belonging of these axes. The paper uses comparative analysis to asses the level of fund absorption for each measure compared in Romania and Lithuania. The results highlight the need and support for structural change and rural diversification. The conclusion suggests that for a better improvement of fund using there is a need for a better balance between different measures within the axis when projects are submitted and contracted, more facilities in terms of eligibility criteria and more information and awareness among farmers and local administration, improved access to credit.business and rural development, fund absorption