Knowledge transfer in the process of rural development

The collapse of the communist regime in Romania, in December 1989, determined, at a very short period of time, the disappearance of the co-operative sector of Bolshevik type, once Law 18 (Land Law) was enforced in February 1991, which initiated the land ownership reform. The causes of the liquidation offormer agricultural production co-operatives were many, as these entities had proved to be efficient tools in the communists' exercise of totalitarian power. In this context, the reactivation or more concretely, the reconfiguration of a new co-operative sector in full process of recognition and reconstitution of the private land ownership seemed impossible to achieve. From an economic perspective, the relaunch of the co-operative sector in agriculture, after 1991, took place under the background of certain "restrictions in the agricultural sector" generated by a complex set of factors, where the competition between the small-sized and the large-sized holdings has constantly prevailed ever since. Starting from these general considerations, we think that the Romanian agriculture first needs a new reconfiguration of the ownership and operation structures; in the second place, it needs a new approach to the agricultural market operation and development policy.