Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 18 ISSUE 2
Written by Axel WOLZ, Judith MÖLLERS, Marius Mihai MICU

Since the collapse of the socialist regime, Romania’s farm structure is characterised by a bi-modal pattern; i.e. there are almost three million farms farming, on average, less than two hectares and less than 10% of total utilised agricultural area (UAA) on the one side and about 13,000 farms cultivating more than 100 hectares each and about one half of national UAA on the other. Most smallholders rely on subsistence farming as a survival strategy. They might barter and sell any surplus. In such a situation, it may be assumed that they unite and cooperate among each other to improve their situation, as it has been observed in many other parts of the world. However, in Romania as in many other post-socialist economies, farmers are reluctant to form or join formal organisations of mutual assistance, like cooperatives or producer groups. In this contribution, we want to discuss the major bottlenecks why farmers are hesitant to commit themselves to formal modes of collaboration. This analysis is based on an own survey, updated by a literature review, statistics and key informant interviews.

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