Download Improving life standards in rural areas and the diversification of the

Improving life standards in rural
areas and the diversification of the
rural economy in Romania
Dr. Cosmin SALASAN
Banat’s University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Timisoara &
Romanian Academy –
Research Centre for Sustainable Rural Development of Romania
Current situation
• second largest new member state (6% of the EU territory)
• GDP represents less than 1% of the total EU GDP
• rural area represent 87,1% of the national territory (compared
to 80% at EU level)
• 45,1% of the population living in rural area
• 32% of the active population is employed in agriculture and
forestry
• sector produces 12,1% of the GDP and 13,6% of the total GVA
• productivity is very low (labour/land ration equals 63
AWU/100 ha)
• agri-food trade balance is still negative and widening (1,3
billion euro in 2005)
Current situation
Farming in Romania has two main (and relatively
opposite) dimensions:
• few (agricultural) legal entities, mostly large
commercial farms, (18,263 averaging 269 ha,
accounting for 34.5% of UAA),
• an impressive number of individual farms, mostly
subsistence and semi-subsistence holdings
(4,121,247, average size 2.15 ha, accounting for
65.5% of UAA)
Around 3 million of the holdings covering
approximately 30% of agricultural land are
considered as subsistence only
Graphical presentation of the farm number, average area and
share of total UAA
4.121.247 farms
65,5% UAA
269 ha average size
34,5% UAA
18.263 farms
2,15 ha average size
Current situation
30% of the national territory is represented by
mountains
Less Favored Areas represent 12% of the territory
giving a total of 42% of LFA accounting 34,5% of
UAA.
Natural and semi-natural ecosystems cover around
47% of the national territory.
Approximately 2.4 million ha of the country's seminatural grassland is classified as of High Nature
Value (HNV).
CAP rural diversification opportunities
Creation and the development of microenterprises in rural area aims to support by
2013 almost 10.000 enterprises, creating
~30.000 jobs
Impacting in approximately 2% employment
growth rate in secondary and tertiary sectors
in rural area only by this type of support
CAP rural diversification opportunities
Encouragement of the tourism activities aims to
add 2,52% employment growth rate by
creating another ~40.000 jobs for more than
7,5 million tourist visits expected
Projected tourism activities have a breakdown
by type, including:
• agro-tourism,
• rural tourism and
• leisure tourism
Village renewal
Over 5 million rural inhabitants from more than
1.000 communes are to benefit of the impact of
actions and projects undertaken by this measure,
accounting 50% of the target population
In physical terms this means more than 3.000 km of
roads, more than 6.000 km of pipelines for water
supply and 5.000 km of sewage pipelines. It also
estimates over 4.000 jobs created
Recent developments
The first projects’ call organized between the 3rd
and the 28th of March gathered 918 projects
amounting more than 700 million euro (728,71
million euro) for all the three opened measures:
• 708 projects requesting 291,26 million euro for
farm investments
• 194 projects requesting 405,98 million euro for
village renewal, and
• 16 projects requesting 31,45 million euro for
increasing the added value
Number of projects submitted in
March 2008 under NRDP in Romania
Requested value of projects submitted in
March 2008 under NRDP in Romania
Recent developments
The initial expectations regarding the monthly
financial allocations, 194,31 million euro were
from far over passed by the first round of
projects submitted, 728,71 million euro,
almost 4 times more (factor 3,75)