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The "Farm to Fork" European Union Strategy sets as key strategic objective to reach “at least 25% of the EU`s agricultural land under organic farming and significant increase in organic aquaculture by 2030”. The purpose of this paper is to assess the main ongoing trends of the organic farming in Romania. Statistical data was collected from the official website of the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture by studying the conversion and ecological attestation certificates published by the local certification bodies. In Romania there are 11 inspection and certification bodies that have certified 7,977 producers in 2021, mainly having as main activity the vegetable sector. The results reveal that in Romania around 3% of the land is under organic certification that is far below the above mentioned EU thresholds. In conclusion, Romanian organic agriculture has many farmers who own small plot of land. Although there has been a growing trend of the organic certification over the past few years, the number and area of organic land is largely dependent on the CAP incentives and to a less extent to market opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive and quantitative knowledge of ecological factors affecting crop production is needed in purpose to meet the challenge of growing world population with minimal environmental impact. Earthworms are target organisms both for scientists studying the biological component of soils and for farmers concerned with monitoring the quality of their soils. For the growing social interest to quantify the role of earthworms in ecosystems, a precise and accurate estimation of their diversity, abundance and biomass is needed. Earthworm ecologists tend to use methods of extraction with less use of chemicals, with this purpose we want to test some new environmental friendly methods like chili powder, mustard powder, mustard-vinegar suspension, in comparison with formalin 0.1% (10 ml in 8 l water) and 0.2% (15 ml in 8 l water). Efficiency of methods is compared in terms of earthworm species composition, numbers, biomass, ecological groups (epigeic, anecic, endogeic), development stages (adults + subadults vs. juveniles) and the mortality rates in the first week after sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]