Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

has an agricultural capacity of approximately , of which only 10 million are used as

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...

. In 2008, an evaluation revealed that 6.8 million hectares are not used.6,8 milioane de hectare agricole nu sunt lucrate
standard.ro, accesat la 6 mai 2009 In 2018 Romania was the third biggest agricultural producer of the EU and produced the largest amount of

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

. Agriculture summed up about 4.3% of

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

in 2019, down from 12.6% in 2004. As of 2017, 25.8% of the Romanian workforce is employed in agriculture, compared to an EU average of 4.4%. As of 2016, only 1.6% of Romanian farmers were recipients of tertiary education, compared to an 8.9% EU average. Mechanization is comparatively poor, with one

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

available for every 54 hectares, while the EU average is one tractor for every 13 hectares.Chinezii încep producţia de tractoare la Râşnov
, standard.ro, accesat la 11 septembrie 2009 Approximately 170,000 tractors exist in Romania, of which about 80% are aging or obsolete. In many regions of the country, farmers still use horse-drawn agriculture tools and rely on animal power. Unlike

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

, where tractors are replaced after 3,000-4,000 hours of use, in Romania they sometimes last up to 12,000 hours. The main problems encountered by Romanian agriculturists are a lack of major investments in agriculture, due to difficulty in accessing available funds, fragmentation and erosion of soil, property-related lawsuits and obsolete technology. Several major companies have entered the Romanian market, including

Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, and an independent subsidiary of WH Group. Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter ...

, Cargill, Bunge, Glencore,

Lactalis Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

and

Meggle AG Meggle is a milk and whey processing company based in Wasserburg am Inn, Germany. History In 1882 Josef Anton Meggle founded a dairy in Wasserburg am Inn. In order to expand, Josef's brother Jakob opened a sales office in Dresden in 1886 – ...

. These companies have since invested hundreds of millions of euros in Romania.

Production

200px, Farmers at Tescani village in Bacau County, October 2017 According to the National Statistics Institute, in 2006 991,000 ha of sun-flower and 191,000 ha of soybean were cultivated. Cereal production in 2006 stood at 15.1 million tons, including 5.3 million tons of wheat and 8.6 million tons of maize.Holdingul Agro Chirnogi imprumuta noua mil. € pentru a-si extinde culturile agricole
Accesat la 4 mai 2009 In 2007, a severe

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

destroyed over 60% of crops. Wheat production subsequently fell to 3 million tons, and prices fell 25%. Analysts claimed it was the worst harvest since 1940. Cereal, fruit and vegetable production: (thousands of tons) Through the

Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce the ...

, Romania will receive 14.5 billion euros between 2007 and 2013, according to statements made by the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. Romania produced in 2018: * 18.6 million tons of

(9th largest producer in the world); * 10.1 million tons of

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

(16th largest producer in the world); * 3 million tons of sunflower seeds (4th largest producer in the world, only behind Ukraine, Russia and Argentina); * 3 million tons of

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es; * 1.8 million tons of

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

; * 1.6 million tons of

rapeseed Rapeseed (''Brassica napus ''subsp.'' napus''), also known as rape, or oilseed rape, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturally contains a ...

; * 1.1 million tons of

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

s (17th largest producer in the world); * 1 million tons of cabbage; * 978 thousand tons of sugar beets, which are used to produce sugar and

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...

; * 842 thousand tons of plums (2nd largest producer in the world, only behind China); * 742 thousand tons of

tomatoes The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

; * 643 thousand tons of

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

s; * 521 thousand tons of

watermelon Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varie ...

s; * 465 thousand tons of

soy The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...

; * 383 thousand tons of

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

; In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.Romania production in 2018, by FAO
/ref>

Romanian agricultural research

Agricultural research in Romania developed mainly through the Agronomical Research Institute (founded 1927), and post-World War II through its successor, the Research Institute for Cereals and Industrial Crops. Some of the main Romanian agricultural scientists include

Ion Ionescu de la Brad Ion Ionescu de la Brad (June 24, 1818 – December 16, 1891), born Ion Isăcescu, was a Moldavian, later Romanian revolutionary, agronomist, statistician, scholar, and writer. Born in Roman, Romania, Roman, he was the son of a Moldavian Romani ...

Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisești Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisești (16 October 1885–4 June 1967) was a Romanian agronomer. He was elected titular member of the Romanian Academy in 1936,Nichifor Ceapoiu, Zoe Țapu, Alexandru-Viorel Vrânceanu, Cristian Hera, Nicolae N. Săulescu, and others.Săulescu N. N., Ittu G., Ittu Mariana, Mustățea P
Cinci decenii de ameliorare a grâului la Fundulea
/ref>

Genetically modified crops

Genetically modified soybean A genetically modified soybean is a soybean (''Glycine max'') that has had DNA introduced into it using genetic engineering techniques. In 1996, the first genetically modified soybean was introduced to the U.S. by Monsanto. In 2014, 90.7 milli ...

was legal to cultivate and sell until entry into the EU in 2007, whereupon they were banned. This resulted in an immediate withdrawal of 70% of the soybean hectares in 2008 and a

trade deficit The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance ...

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

117.4m for purchase of replacement products. Farmer sentiment is very much in favour of relegalisation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agriculture in Romania