Farm Consolidation In Romania – Options And Opportunities

The present paper intends to estimate what the impact of current farmer pensioners (former agricultural co-operative members) getting out of the farming activity would be. An evaluation of the costs of this measure from the state budget perspective, as well as its effects upon the agrarian structure is attempted. It is worth mentioning that Romania is one of the few candidate countries where farmer pensioners continue to farm their lands, because the pensions they get (about 10-13 euros/month) are not enough for them to survive. At the same time, among the rural development measures included and funded within the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) there is one called “early retirement for farmers”, referring to the farmers before the retirement age who can give up working on the farm, under certain conditions. It is obvious that the application of this measure in Romania should be preceded by present farmer pensioners getting out of the farming activity, under acceptable conditions for them, and, of course, on a voluntary basis. At the same time, it is estimated that the success of such an action could have a consistent impact upon the process of farm consolidation, as the pensioners households have, on the average, large agricultural areas, which could be leased out to the young households in the rural areas.