The present Romanian rural

CAP challenges for rural development Case of Timis County

Region overview

8.696,7 km 2 the largest county in Romania average yearly temperature 10,7º C average yearly rainfall 500-700 mm 659.299 inhabitants / 47,9% men 52,1% women density 75,8 inhabitants/km 2 12 urban localities, 85 communes and 312 villages natural growth rate of the population -2‰ migration ratio is positive 2,4‰ rate of occupied population: in the tertiary sector (41,5%) total population active in agriculture (24,9%) industry 28% and 5,6% in constructions unemployment rate 2,3% (5,9% national) agricultural area 81% from total county transforming industries 70% total production public roads density 33,4 km/100 km² railroads the density 91,9 km/1000 km²

Agriculture in regional economy

81% of total area - agricultural area 869665 ha total – 701225 ha agricultural - 532506 ha arable the agriculture contribution to GVA decreases as share in total from 25% to 14%. Secondary sector’s GDP goes from 40,3% to 36% and the tertiary sector’s GDP grows from 37,8% to 49,5% (‘95-’04) All while the county GDP grows from 3497,4 in 1998 to 6676,3 in 2004 (millions PPS) In total households’ income only 4,1% is generated in agriculture (data at national level) while agricultural holdings with other gainful activity grows from 4,2% to 22,1 between 2003 and 2005

Current situation

• • • • • • • • • • Monoactivity rural economy Structural issues - small and fragmented Farm/farmer status – juridical status De-capitalised farms Knowledge Education/formation Extension services Lack of community organisation Cultural issues related to biodiversity and environment Administrative capacity

Current situation

• Monoactivity rural economy The agriculture dominates the rural economy. Not only it is the dominant activity but provides low incomes and unsatisfactory living standards for rural families. Given the rural poverty and the low self-financing capacities the investments are limited and income diversification tends to become compulsory for the rural households

Current situation

• Structural issues - small and fragmented The farm structure comprises more than 1,5 million farms with 1 to 5 ha in Romania. Even medium farms have sever structural issues given the large number of plots and their small size. No re-groupement initiative was taken into account by any governments until now

Current situation

• Farm/farmer status – juridical status Both the farms and the farmers have no juridical status until today with few exceptions where they are registered as commercial companies. No taxes are collected except for land and residence property. Public financial support cannot deal with unregistered actors!

Current situation

• De-capitalised farms During the communist period the forced collective agricultural exploitation did not allow capitalisation in households. Therefore their accumulations at the beginning of 1990’s when the land began to be restituted amounted zero in most situations

Current situation

• Knowledge The knowledge level is rather unsatisfactory for the contemporary agriculture, open market insufficient knowledge for the administrative procedures, basic economics, new (agricultural) technologies, ITC

Current situation

• Education/formation As external factor, the education system does not provide appropriate formation/training programmes for farmers or other specialised short term modules tailored on beneficiaries needs. Vocational agricultural schools are rare and with inadequate programms

Current situation

• Extension services The public extension services have less staff than required in order to support the farmers and the rural communities. The level of expertise of the consultants remain purely technical with little or no knowledge about the CAP

Current situation

• Lack of community organisation The rural communities are not organised. Their interests are not represented and people lack minimum communication and community initiatives. Recent past marked a number of people as regarding terms like “collective”, “common”, “cooperate”

Current situation

• Cultural issues related to biodiversity and environment Rural inhabitants (urban as well) have no cultural values attached to environment and/or biodiversity. These new concepts need to be actively promoted in order to be facilitate a broader understanding and acceptance

Current situation

• Administrative capacity All administration levels but more importantly the regional and local ones are lacking institutional and professional capacity. Efforts are still in progress, but 12 months after accession certain core structures are inoperational or seriously delayed

Main challenges for the National Rural Development Programme

• • • • • • The Programme management administrative capacity LEADER axis – absence of community organisation Rural economy diversification – entrepreneurship poverty, infrastructure, Semi-subsistence farming – agricultural households small and numerous Young farmers / investments in modernisation – actors, economic capacity, legal Agro-environment measures – cultural change, IACS capacity, synchronisation with Environment measures