IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v45y2014i4p732-752.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Romanian Peasants’ into ‘European Farmers’? Using Statistics to Standardize Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Antoine Roger

Abstract

type="main"> In this article, the agricultural sector in Romania provides the basis of a sociological enquiry into the contribution of statistics to the definition of legitimate economic organization. Using the analytical tools developed by James C. Scott, the emphasis is laid on the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) developed by the European Commission to define ‘economically viable’ farms. The measurement units which the FADN provides are applied at national level to determine legitimate agricultural practices. This imposes a productivist definition of the agricultural economy which diverges from the modes of social and economic organization observed in rural areas in Romania. Four million Romanian citizens make their living directly from working the land. The majority own smallholdings received during decollectivization and practise subsistence farming at the fringes of the legal economy. Instead of employing a definition of agriculture consistent with their practices and developing local distribution channels, quantification instruments provided by the European Commission form the basis of a selection procedure among these smallholders. These instruments have enabled the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture to set a threshold of ‘economic viability’ below which producers are deemed unable to develop a commercial approach to their activities. The objective is to help those who just about reach the required level to consolidate their agricultural holdings and take up intensive farming. The remainder are disqualified and encouraged to leave the sector. To further this objective, the category ‘semi-subsistence’ agriculture has been created and takes centre stage in all measures implemented. Nevertheless, the statistical dividing lines on which this category is based have no substance and the structure of agriculture is manifesting high levels of inertia.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoine Roger, 2014. "‘Romanian Peasants’ into ‘European Farmers’? Using Statistics to Standardize Agriculture," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(4), pages 732-752, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:4:p:732-752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/dech.12102
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Raynolds, 2000. "Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 297-309, September.
    2. Brian VAN Arkadie, 1973. "National Accounting and Development Planning: A Review of Some Issues," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 15-31, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wolz, Axel & Möllers, Judith & Micu, Marius Mihai, 2020. "Options for agricultural service cooperatives in a postsocialist economy: Evidence from Romania," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 49(1), pages 57-65.
    2. Małgorzata Stec & Mariola Grzebyk, 2018. "The implementation of the Strategy Europe 2020 objectives in European Union countries: the concept analysis and statistical evaluation," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 119-133, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ags:ijag24:345263 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ximena Rueda & Andrea Paz & Theodora Gibbs‐Plessl & Ronald Leon & Byron Moyano & Eric F Lambin, 2018. "Smallholders at a Crossroad: Intensify or Fall behind? Exploring Alternative Livelihood Strategies in a Globalized World," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 215-229, February.
    3. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    4. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    5. Jean-Marie Codron & Lucie Siriex & Thomas Reardon, 2006. "Social and environmental attributes of food products in an emerging mass market: Challenges of signaling and consumer perception, with European illustrations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 283-297, October.
    6. Vellema, W. & Buritica Casanova, A. & Gonzalez, C. & D’Haese, M., 2015. "The effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 13-25.
    7. Isaac, Wendy P. & Ganpat, Wayne G. & Bowen-O'Connor, Clare & St. Martin, Chaney C. G. & Brathwaite, Richard A. I., 2009. "Sustainability Of The Windward Islands Banana Industry Through Agrotourism," 45th Annual Meeting, July 12-17, 2009, Frigate Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis 256344, Caribbean Food Crops Society.
    8. Podhorsky, Andrea, 2015. "A positive analysis of Fairtrade certification," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 169-185.
    9. Alessandra Arcuri, 2015. "The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 144-159, June.
    10. Jessica Goldberger, 2008. "Non-governmental organizations, strategic bridge building, and the “scientization” of organic agriculture in Kenya," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(2), pages 271-289, June.
    11. Laura T. Raynolds & Claudia Rosty, 2021. "Fair Trade USA coffee plantation certification: Ramifications for workers in Nicaragua," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(S1), pages 102-121, August.
    12. Unknown, 1982. "Papers and Proceedings: Workshop on Egyptian Nutrition Problems and Programs," Working Papers 233333, University of California, Davis, Agricultural Development Systems: Egypt Project.
    13. Sylvaine Poret, 2006. "Fair trade and large-scale distribution [Le commerce équitable face à la grande distribution]," Working Papers hal-02819474, HAL.
    14. Soliman, Ibrahim, 1982. "Food Security in Egypt The Socio-Economics Implications of Dietary Protein-Energy Interrelationships," Journal Articles 212019, Zagazig University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    15. Sylvaine Poret & Claire Chambolle, 2007. "Fair Trade: In or Out the Market?," Working Papers hal-00243062, HAL.
    16. Verónica Borbolla-Pérez & Lourdes Georgina Iglesias-Andreu & Mauricio Luna-Rodríguez & Pablo Octavio-Aguilar, 2017. "Perceptions regarding the challenges and constraints faced by smallholder farmers of vanilla in Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 2421-2441, December.
    17. Brian Ilbery & Damian Maye, 2005. "Alternative (Shorter) Food Supply Chains and Specialist Livestock Products in the Scottish–English Borders," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(5), pages 823-844, May.
    18. Nindl, Elisabeth, 2014. "An empirical assessment of Fairtrade: A perspective for low-and middle-income countries?," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 160, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    19. Elisabeth Nindl, 2014. "An empirical assessment of Fairtrade: A perspective for low- and middle-income countries?," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp160, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    20. Elizabeth Barham, 2002. "Towards a theory of values-based labeling," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(4), pages 349-360, December.
    21. Daniel Jaffee & Philip Howard, 2010. "Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 387-399, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:4:p:732-752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.