RURAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN ROMANIA

RURAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN ROMANIA Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Georgiana Sîrbu Director Managing Authority for National Rural Deve...
Author: Benjamin Hoover
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RURAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN ROMANIA Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

Georgiana Sîrbu Director Managing Authority for National Rural Development Programme

“Rural development policy is not just about how farmers manage the countryside. It is not about creating a sort of open-air museum”. “It is about real rural futures for real rural people”.

(Former Commissioner for Agri/RD Franz Fischler - Salzburg Conference - November 2003)

What does Rural Development mean in Real terms? •Maintaining life (Sustainable Living) in Rural Areas /Communities. •Requires an Economic Factor previously it has been mostly regarded as solely an „Agriculturerelated‟ activity (now a different viewpoint) •Means of Living to a satisfactory standard – Sustainable Rural Livelihood Extensive v Intensive Agriculture

What does RD mean for Romania?

•Maintaining life in Rural Areas (economical growth, new jobs, attractiveness of the rural space as a place to live in, to work, reservoir of natural resources and highly valued landscapes) •Development of a range of Economic Factors •Recognizing the current critical importance of Agriculture

GENERAL DATA – ROMANIA, data 2005 Area: 238 thousand km2 Population: more than 21 million inhabitants Rural areas in Romania cover: 87.1% of the territory Rural population: 9.7 million inhabitants Population density in rural area: 45.1 inhabitants/km square GDP per inhabitant: GDP/capita in 2005 was about 34% of the EU-25 average

Registered unemployment: 7.2% GVA weight from agriculture in GDP: 13.6%

GENERAL DATA – ROMANIA, data 2005

The national territory is split into 8 macro-economic regions (NUTS 2). The eight macro-economic development regions are not territorial administrative structure, but rather informal organizational structures made up of an average of 4 to 6 counties (NUTS 3) each. Almost all the regions contain the main forms of relief: plain, hill, mountain.

What does RD mean for Romania? Some Facts and Figures •The rural development has a main importance in Romania, there are many rural communities and the primary sector has an important contribution to the national economy and to the GDP. •In 2005 Romanian agriculture =11.4% of GDP (The EU-15 average was 2.0%). •4.9 million people work in agriculture, fishery and forestry= 42.8% of total civilian employment; ( EU 10 average is 22%) ( EU 15 average is 4.3%)

What does RD mean for Romania? Some Facts and Figures •Romania‟s total area is 23.8 million ha of which the Utilisable Agricultural Area (UAA) = 14.8 million ha or 62.1% of the total. •(The EU-15 average is 40.6% and the EU-27 average 44%). •Forestry accounts for 28.5% •Arable land represents 63.4% Agriculture in Romania is economically more important than in any other country of EU.

What does RD mean for Romania? Some Facts and Figures •In Romania there are some 4 million „farms‟ < 2 ha. Only 125,000 farms larger than 20 ha (=Full-time commercial farms) *EU 15 average for all farms was c.30ha •Two thirds of farms owners are over 50 with one third over 65 years of age. •Only 1 in 1000 of the rural population has graduated from a higher educational institution.

What does RD mean for Romania? Some Facts and Figures •Agriculture in Romania is a sector of considerable potential – but not under current structural conditions. •Despite natural conditions conducive to thriving agricultural production and abundant farm labor, Romania became a net agro-food importer (>80%) during the transition period.

What does RD mean for Romania? Some Facts and Figures •Agriculture‟s role as an occupational and social buffer has resulted in low labor productivity and hidden unemployment •This has seriously impeded structural adjustment and modernizations of the sector and acted to block its development in line with its (considerable) comparative advantage

The core objectives of the agri-food sector in Romania aim to: •increase and capitalize the family type holdings, •raise the rural population incomes, •develop the processing sector, •ensure the food security for the population, •increase the contribution of the agrifood sector at the GDP, •adjust the commercial balance for the agri-food products. These measures aim to answer to the immediate needs of the rural area development.

Are going to be implemented measures that aim to:

•raise the economic dynamism of rural area, •preserve and improve the environment, •increase the social dynamism and the quality of life in rural area. The axes of the rural development can be seen in the graph.

Axis 1 “Increasing the competitiveness of the agri-food and forestry sectors”

The measures foreseen by the first priority direction will have as result: •the creation of a modern agriculture, •decreasing its dual character, •raising added value, •obtaining upper quality products. The promotion of competitiveness will be performed concurrently with: • the process of transforming semi-subsistence farms into family holdings, •the transfer of the agricultural holdings from older farmers to other farmers, especially to young farmers, •improving the labour force in agriculture, •improving management, •increasing the sizes of the holdings.

Axis 2 “The improvement of the environment and of the rural area”

• A sustainable economical development “goes hand in hand” with preserving the environment, with a careful management of the natural resources, with the preservation of the biodiversity. • It is wished as the modernization of the agriculture should not be done in the environment protection disadvantage. • A core attention is granted to the particular situation of the less favored area and to the practices that promote the biodiversity, water, soil and environment preservation.

Less favored area in Romania

Axis 3 “Improving the quality of life in rural areas and the diversification of the rural economy “ •It also should be facilitated the transition from the exclusively agriculture polity towards a policy for rural development. It should not be ignored the social dimension of the rural area, that depends on factors such as: •access to education, •increasing the institutional capacity, •health facilities, •developing the infrastructure.

Axis 4 - LEADER The launching and functioning of local development initiatives

• The LEADER initiatives tests and innovates the idea of integrated local rural development. • LEADER

a horizontal and methodological axis

• Main objective to implement integrated strategies sustainable development of the rural area. • Local actions groups are created plans implementation.

to support the

elaborate the local development responsible for their

What is the financial allowance? 8.022 billions EUR – EU cofinancing Transfers from direct payments 500 mil. EUR

AXIS 1 42.19% - 3.17 billions EUR

NRDP TOTAL EAFRD 7.522 billions EUR

AXIS 2 25% -1.88 billions EUR

LEADER 2.5%- 188 mil. EUR

AXIS 3 26.31% -1.97 billions EUR

TA – 300.8 mil. EUR

Thank you for attention!

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