@article{Salasan:91907,
      recid = {91907},
      author = {Salasan, Cosmin and Fritzsch, Jana},
      title = {THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE FOR OVERCOMING RURAL POVERTY IN  ROMANIA},
      address = {2009},
      number = {918-2016-72642},
      series = {IAMO Discussion Papers},
      pages = {34},
      year = {2009},
      abstract = {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.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/91907},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.91907},
}