From Subsistence To Efficiency In The Romanian Agriculture During Transition

In Romanias farming sector are currently working 3.6 million people, representing 32.1% of the total countrys labour force. Yet, they contribute by only 8.5% to total GDP (2005). Besides the sectoral restructuring efforts, there are at present social problems that have to be solved up, namely the diminution of the huge agricultural labour force and the improvement of life quality in the rural areas. The importance of completing the tasks that remained uncompleted during the transition period, namely the privatization of land still in state ownership, competitiveness improvement, development of a market-compatible institutional framework became a pressing need at present, in spite of the many difficulties.subsistence, labor excedent, net importer, quality of life, rural areas, Romania, Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Accession of Romania to the European Union - Scenario Analysis for Key Agricultural Crop Markets Using AGMEMOD Model

Aiming the EU accession put new and significant challenges to the candiadte countries' policies, and the problem of the inclusion of their agricultural sectors was among the most difficult ones. AGMEMOD is an econometric model of the EU-25 + 2 candidate countries (Romania and Bulgaria) agricultural sector. This poster presents the baseline and the scenario results for several key agricultural products of Romania's model developed as part of AGMEMOD model. The model is an econometric, dynamic, multi-product partial equilibrium comodity model. The target of this approach is to evaluate the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms upon the country's agricultural sector in perspective of its accession to the EU. The selected commodities are: soft wheat, barley, maize and sunflower. The baseline scenario depicts the results of the agricultural sector in Romania if the country would not join the EU and would continue with its own agricultural policy as applied until now. The main conclusion coming from the analysis of the baseline scenario is that rather few significant changes in the Romanian agricultural production would have occurred, such as mod est positive evolution of production and consumption for wheat and sunflower, and some stagnation in barley and maize. The Accession scenario of the model indicates a significant positive effect upon the wheat, maize and sunflower production. Together with a moderate increase in the consumption, overall some surpluses for export would be available, modest for maize, but significant for sunflower.Romania, econometric model, EU accession, cereals, sunflower, Crop Production/Industries, Q13, Q18,

The effect of funding the investments in the Romanian agricultural holdings through the pre-accession Programs

In the pre-accession period, in addition to the support to all agricultural holdings by EU funded programs, specific national measures were also applied, together with massive allocation of funds from the national budget in order to support the agricultural producers. The present paper is analyzing the results of SAPARD Program implementation (measure 3.1 Investments on agricultural holdings), as well as of the nationally funded programs. One third of the total funds were allocated for this measure. The present paper is analyzing the eligible projects, as compared to those under the nationally funded investment programs, their distribution by counties and development regions, investment types and volumes, and legal status of the applicant farms, as well as the impact of investments upon the establishment of new farms. At the same time, the private consultancy and design firms, as well as the agricultural consultancy offices at county level had an important contribution in supporting the farmers to carry out over 3600 eligible projects.investments on agricultural holdings, SAPARD Program, Romania, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance,

Competitive Advantages and Disadvantages in Romania’s Agri-Food Trade -Trends and Challenges

The paper is part of the studies concerning trade patterns and agri-food foreign trade policies in the EU enlargement context, aiming to assess the competitive trade advantages and disadvantages of the Romania’s agri-food products in the foreign trade relations. The analysis focuses on the challenges of the trade liberalization and its influence on the intensification of the commercial exchanges, the supply diversification and on the trade balance equilibrium, faced by Romania’s agri-food sector over the transition and pre-accession period. The structural reforms of the transition and EU accession preparations induced paramount changes in Romania’s agri-food trade pattern, i.e. a fluctuating evolution of the agri-food foreign trade, either in correlation with the variations in the agricultural supply, the performance deficiencies of the agri-food sector that provoked disequilibria on the export market, or with the effect of political changes upon the trade flows. The recent integration in the Single Market recalls a special attention on the opportunities for the competitive producers to attract benefits offered by the enlarged access possibilities and the openness to third countries. In this context, an in-depth analysis of the bilateral trade relation between Romania and EU has been performed by using an alternative method of the comparative trade advantage index, based on the one developed by Vollrath [1]. The results emphasize the identification of either the competitive agri-food trade potential, or of the sensitive zones that could be affected by the external competition post-accession, as well as the needed improvements in the Romanian agri-food sector’s competitiveness.Agri-food trade, competitiveness, comparative trade advantage index., International Relations/Trade,

Changes in the Romanian farm structures during transition evolution and main determinants

In Romania, farm restructuring is an ongoing process, largely conditioned by the legal framework that accompanied the land reform during the transition period. After 1990, Romanian agriculture experienced critical shifts in farming structures, reflected also in the production ones. While arable land represents 63% of the UAA, a restrictive production factor in developing a competitive agriculture resides in the fact that 61.7% of total arable land is utilized in excessively fragmented family farms 14303 thousands plots. This is seriously hampering family farms productivity, if we take into account that they are producing an estimated 74% of the total crop output of the sector level (2004). Under the present conditions, the agricultural producers act under two major objective restrictions: (i) integration of the Romanian agriculture into European structures, under the implementation of the 2007-2013 CAP reform; (ii) the relative low possibilities for backing up the financial support received through different EU-funded programs. The present study tries to assess the evolution of the Romanian farm structures during transition, together with the policies aiming to land ownership and consolidation, by analysing the main determinants of the changes, the expectations, the successes and failures, as well as to appraise the problems encumbering the further restructuring process, given the need for successfully competing in the EU Single Market.agricultural structures, land consolidation, Romania, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management,

Regional Analysis of Implementation of the National Rural Development Programme 2007-2013

Rural areas, representative for Romania, have substantial development resources, but unevenly distributed in terms of demography, landforms, soil, climate and vegetation. These disparities are reflected in the socio-economic development of the respective areas and the quality of life of their rural population. The study examines regional disparities in the implementation of the RDP 2007-2013 based on information and public data of the monitoring reports and, as well, based on the previous studies of other research teams. The data used were taken from the national statistics, as well from  national publications, on which we made calculations and own interpretations. The study analyzed the degree of reaching the objectives set in terms of public expenditure by the end of 2015, grouped by axes, measures, development regions and counties. The research results have revealed an inhomogeneity between realized and planned public spending, both at axes level and measures one, while significant differences in regional and county level were as well observed. Some causes of lower absorption of certain measures were generally at national level,  beneficiaries encountering difficulties due to lack of own resources for co-financing, while others were due to long periods of implementation specific to particular investment domains. For other measures, the multiannual or specific nature of certain geographical and environmental areas, or the amount of the granted grants, favoured exceeding of the allocated budget expenditure or determined a high degree of absorption