Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAP) – Adequate Alternative for Rural and Agritourism Development

Land reform of 1991 implemented pursuant to "Law on Land" has generated that is not used during the period from 1991 to 2016 and was named "refused land" for a variety of reasons that are widely recognized by rural world for why and which they are. This land fund by purpose and destination of use is grouped into three categories, where the third, with about 53 thousand hectares, is less fertile, affected by erosion, and should be used with priority. Their expansion results to be 67% in mountain areas, 31% in hilly areas and only 2% in lowland areas. The more effective alternative according to our agriculture theory and practice is that of MAP (medicinal and aromatic plants) that have multi-dimensional cultivating interests for our country, conditioned by the climatic and soil conditions as well as the economic and organizational conditions of a range of stakeholders related to MAP, such as their growers, collectors, aggregators, processors and traders (exporters). In terms of our country MAP have two main situations: a) From the wild, outdoor and, b) Cultivated, in increasingly growing areas, in different areas and with differentiated practices. Among the MAP in complexity, sage, thyme and oregano have obvious superiority in area planted and the production realized out of their total. The advantage of MAP results in full use of agricultural land, in a broader employment of free labor force (mainly women), increase of income, increase of their exports, which currently account for about 52-54 % of the total that agriculture as a whole realizes in the last years, etc.