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,

Interesting Experiences in Wheat and Milk Channels in a Country Under the EU Accession

The wheat chain went through a significant restructuring in terms of ownership and operation. Among the agri-food processing sub-sectors, milling and bakery saw the largest development, in terms of employment, turnover and investment, both FDI and domestic capital. The milk sector saw even more fundamental changes during the transition period. It has been the only agricultural product that recorded continuous increase in both yield and total output during the past decade. The restructuring of the downstream sector was among the most difficult in the country's agri-food sector Considered as well as staple food, together with wheat, milk has been submitted to heavy intervention policies.Romania, wheat channel, milk channel, FDI, International Relations/Trade, Q13,

From Subsistence To Efficiency In The Romanian Agriculture During Transition

In Romania's farming sector are currently working 3.6 million people, representing 32.1% of the total country's 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

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

Interesting Experiences in Wheat and Milk Channels in a Country Under the EU Accession

The wheat chain went through a significant restructuring in terms of ownership and operation. Among the agri-food processing sub-sectors, milling and bakery saw the largest development, in terms of employment, turnover and investment, both FDI and domestic capital. The milk sector saw even more fundamental changes during the transition period. It has been the only agricultural product that recorded continuous increase in both yield and total output during the past decade. The restructuring of the downstream sector was among the most difficult in the country's agri-food sector Considered as well as staple food, together with wheat, milk has been submitted to heavy intervention policies

Transitional and enterprise restructuring: the development of individual farming in Romania

Economic reforms have induced enterprise restructuring in transition countries. In agriculture, the most dramatic form of restructuring is the break-up of state and collective farms into individual farms. The development of individual farming varies strongly between countries, regions and households. This paper uses household-level data from a 1996 survey in Romania to analyze which household and regional characteristics determine the shift to individual farming. Individual farming is influenced by several household characteristics, such as the human capital (education, age, farming experience), physical capital endowments (ownership of land, buildings, machinery, livestock) and access to other finance sources (off-farm wages, pensions). Furthermore, environmental factors, such as infrastructure, local access to inputs, and the pre-reform importance of individual farming in the region, all affect the development of individual farming

Agricultural economics and transition: What was expected, what we observed, the lessons learned Proceedings (Volume I / II)

Over fifteen years have elapsed since the transition from the centrally planned economic system started in the early 1990’s. During this time agricultural and rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone profound structural changes with wide variations in the degree of transformation and in the rate of success in creating a competitive market and private ownership based food and agricultural system. By becoming member of the European Union the "transition" in its traditional interpretation has been concluded in ten of the Central East European countries. The transition to market based agriculture, however, is far from completion in Southern and Eastern Europe and especially in the CIS countries. International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) and European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) in collaboration with the Corvinus University of Budapest and with a number of other institutions in Hungary organized an inter-conference seminar on the subject of agricultural transition in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The major objective of the seminar was to discuss and draw conclusions on the role of agricultural policy in the transition process in the light of actual progress and current situation in Central and East European countries and in formal Soviet States. In addition the contribution of agricultural economics – both from the West and from the East – as a discipline and a profession to the transition process in agriculture were discussed. A specific objective was to identify priorities and means to strengthen the agricultural economics profession in the transition countries and determine research and educational priorities for the future. The seminar was attended by 118 participants representing 26 countries from Europe, North America and Asia. The Seminar was the largest professional meeting organized by the two associations in 2007. Over 110 abstracts were submitted and evaluated by the International Program Committee. In the two day program of the meeting, 8 presentations were made during the 3 plenary sessions, 66 papers were presented in the 15 contributed paper sessions in 8 subject categories. In addition there were 15 posters discussed in the poster session and the findings of a World Bank study on distortions of agricultural incentives in the region was the subject of a pre-conference workshop. Plenary speakers included Ulrich Koester, Johan Swinnen, Jerzy Wilkin, Zvi Lerman, Eugenia Serova and József Popp-Gábor Udovecz. At the end of the seminar David Colman, President of IAAE gave a global assessment of the status of agricultural economics discipline and profession, while Csaba Csáki, former President of IAAE made summary comments on major issues discussed during the seminar. This volume includes the plenary and contributed papers presented at the seminar and submitted for publications by the authors as well as the abstracts of the poster papers discussed. The seminar was supported and sponsored by a number of organizations and persons. All of their contributions have to be greatly acknowledged. First the two international organizations IAAE and EAAE have to be mentioned, which provided overall organizational framework and logistical support. The IAAE provided in addition a generous grant to support the participation of young agricultural economists from Central and Eastern Europe on the seminar. On the Hungarian side the Corvinus University of Budapest, the Szent István University of Gödöllő, the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, the Hungarian Agricultural Economics Association, the Hungarian Association of Agricultural Sciences and the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were the major material and organizational supporters. The International Program committee was chaired by David Colman and Csaba Csáki and included Ulrich Koester, Joe Swinnen, Eugenia Serova and Jerzy Wilkin. The local Organizing committee was chaired by Csaba Forgács and István Szűcs and included Zoltán Lakner, András Nábrádi, József Popp, József Tóth, Gábor Udovecz, László Vajda, László Villányi, Krisztina Fodor, Attila Jámbor and Tamás Mizik. Finally IAMO, Halle facilitated the publication of this proceedings