Search

The present endowment of the Romanian agriculture with technical means, corroborated with the scarce management at the level of the agricultural holdings, cannot ensure the performance of agricultural works on due time, as provided in the cropping technologies. This results both in a low productivity level and in large harvest losses. The paper is analyzing the trend of the main components of the production factors and the main synthetic indicators quantifying labour productivity in agriculture: (i) agricultural output per employed person and (ii) gross value added per employed person. Among the main causes leading to this situation, the following have been identified: excessive land fragmentation, low scale use of the technical-material base, precarious operation of the irrigation system, inadequate management of the agricultural holdings and of the production factors in general. The study is accompanied by a comparative analysis with the situation in the EU Member States.

The paper assumes that the trends of the Romanian agriculture structural characteristics and of the main inputs are basic elements in assessing the development potential of the sector. The results show that the current endowment of Romanian agriculture with technical means, together with poor management at farm level cannot ensure timely performance of agricultural operations as required by proper technologies. Several causes of this situation have been identified, including: excessive land fragmentation, low scale use of material and technical base, poor operation of irrigation systems, inadequate farm and inputs management in general. This leads to low productivity and crop losses, compared with the situation in other EU Member States.

Romanian rural areas are to cope with the dynamics of radical change, dismantling and restructuring of agricultural structures and processes. The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, directly concerned with rural value added, employment and environmental degradation, had generated a two-strand approach in implementing agricultural policy. Entrepreneurship, innovation, learning, adoption and evolving institutional frameworks are integral parts to this process. Dealing with the vision of a cleaner, more productive and effcient agriculture, by its supporting measures Common Agricultural Policy is strengthening the position of the farming community by encouraging the rural entrepreneurship and setting up the young farmers in rural space. The results of the study argued in favor of considering the priorities of the supporting measures under the two main components of the CAP second pillar: the sectorial function, specifc to agricultural policy reform, and the territorial function specifc for the rural economy and population.

The elaboration of strategic programs for the development of rural areas requires rigorous and comprehensive analysis accompanied by an increased demand for data, as an inherent support for this work. The objective of this paper is to bring into the attention of the academic community the particularities and the main concerns regarding the implementation of the 2011 Agricultural Census in the Republic of Serbia, as an answer to the endeavors for satisfying the data demands of the bodies involved in the use of agricultural statistics for analyzing the emerging issues in agriculture, especially those concerning environment and rural development. On the road of accession to European Union the role of agricultural statistics in the frame of the European Statistical System is a prerequisite for comparable information, indispensable to the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy. Main methodological and organizational aspects regarding the next agricultural census are the main topics of this paper.