Rural Population in the Context of the Structural Changes in Romanian Agriculture

An important dimension of the rural population is given by the subsistence and semisubsistence agriculture where the large majority of people are over the retirement age. This low cost solution to supplement rural people’s incomes or spare their budget from food related expenditure maintains an important number of people in the sector and prevents the farm restructuring acceleration. However, the important candidates for farm restructuring are outside the abovementioned category, which ensures the continuity of the process. The small and medium-sized farms are large consumers of labour but this consumption has two main characteristics: employs nonremunerated family members and uses large amounts of temporary employment outside the household. At present, rural employment is not considered as a major issue in Romania as semisubsistence households act as a safety net for the unemployed people.