The role of agriculture for overcoming rural poverty in Romania

Topical literature sees agriculture's ability to provide food and cash income as a major role in poverty reduction. However, it can only be a driving force for economic development for very poor countries. Economic indicators confirm that Romania is not a very poor country, although poverty has been an issue. During recent years, Romania has progressed successfully in reducing poverty. On the one hand, this can be attributed to its positive overall economic development. On the other hand, agriculture has served as a social safety net for many millions of people. Now the agricultural sector is dominated by subsistent and semi-subsistent farm households headed by persons of retirement age without formal agricultural training. Only 40% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) is operated from commercial private and corporate farms. Thus, their creating incentives for economic growth are unlikely. While large-scale corporate farms are already integrated in agri-food chains, the upcoming group of commercial private farmers will have to show that it can compete on the agri-food market. Although agriculture has been contributing to poverty reduction, there are good reasons to believe that future economic development will rather come from outside the agricultural sector and agriculture will continue to play the role of a social safety net. Strengthening the Romanian agricultural sector calls for concerted policy actions that are targeted to different groups. Fostering land restitution to former owner families, developing a functioning land sales and rental market, and providing access to agricultural product markets could promote the resurgence of a highly productive group of commercial private farmers. Non-farm job creation in rural areas could provide income opportunities for an abundant agricultural labour force. Both new farmers and potential non-farm employees seem to require profession-specific advice and training to become competitive in their transition environment. The large group of pensioners could be convinced to exit the agricultural sector if they could rely on an income from social provisions that covers their daily needs. --

General innovation framework and the innovation expectations of rural actors

The analysis of the general and the further-on more specific innovation framework targeting the rural area and the rural economy begins by screening the general statistic data and continues by an in-depth investigation of the options and opinions of relevant rural actors at the scale of a well-defined rural micro region, in our case a Local Action Group territory. The choice of the local scale should build on the previously acquired experience in project-based developments and the general high favourability for rural development for the specific region. The moment of the investigation is also an observation choice linked to the specific inputs of information and advice during the sessions of information and animation requested during the formulation stage of the future Local Development Strategies. The moment is highly relevant since it places the overall accessible support framework in the development perspectives and even more, in the formulated development intentions on medium term for an entire territory. The collection of facts and observations about the current state and the developments in the field of Research, Development and Innovation are compared to the real expectations and the development intentions of the local rural actors. The measure of the gap between the nationally programmed instruments and the real developments in agriculture and rural economy indicates the fitness level of the top-down programming approach

DIRECT SALE OF PRODUCTS FROM THE FARM

Direct sales from the farm can be a solution for small farms, but the action of certain factors influences the success of direct sales. The direct sales activity of some farmers in Timis County has been analyzed, aiming to establish the causal relationships between the influence of certain factors and the results of the far

NaRA - nacionalni repozitorijum za obrazovanje u oblasti poljoprivrede – rezultat CaSA projekta

Through the realisation of CaSA TEMPUS project university teachers from 5 Serbian Universities were trained in active teaching learning methodology, academic skills and eLearning. They created 63 courses for knowledge refreshment, professional improvement, and in-service training of teachers of secondary agricultural schools and advisors in Extension services. In the virtual environment a platform for the National Repository for Agricultural Education - NaRA (http://arhiva.nara.ac.rs) is set. Courses: classic, blended and on-line (e-learning) are available on the NaRA portal. It also includes scientific and professional journals, defended doctoral theses (PDF), papers published in Proceedings of the symposia organized by Faculties participating in this TEMPUS project, and the results of projects and brochure funded by responsible Ministries. NaRA represents a unique online learning and information platform in the region.Kroz ralizaciju CaSA TEMPUS projekta obučeno je više od 60 mladih nastavnika pet Univerziteta koji su kreirali 63 seminara/modula za inovaciju znanja i profesionalno usavršavanje nastavnika srednjih poljoprivrednih škola i savetodvaca Poljoprivredne savetodavne stručne službe (PSSS) Srbije. U virtuelnom okruženju Univerzitetskog Računskog centra Beogradskog Univerziteta postavljena je platforma Nacionalnog Repozitorijuma za poljoprivredno obrazovanje - NaRA (http://arhiva.nara.ac.rs). Kursevi, klasični, mešoviti i on-line (e-learning) dostupni su na portalu NaRA. U njemu se nalaze časopisi, odbranjene doktorske disertacije, Zbornici publikovanih radova skupova čiji su organizatori Fakulteti učesnici TEMPUS projekta i rezultati projekata i brošure koje finansiraju resorna Ministarstva i druge relevantne publikacije