Romania

Abstract

Prior to the political changes of 1989, agricultural production and sale of grocery products were the exclusive attribute of the State via its empowered agencies. With the agricultural reform of 1991, individual property over agricultural lands was restored, but many individual owners sought different forms of joint ventures in order to make their ownership economically profitable. Thus, a large number of agricultural associations were established, mostly encouraged by the 1994 Law on the Lease of Agricultural Lands. Following the 2005 Law on Land Reform and the enabling of foreign citizens to acquire agricultural lands in Romania, more associations were established alongside large ownerships. Notwithstanding the above, the majority of large agricultural exploitations focus on grain cropping, due to the specific qualities of the soil in Romania; less interest is being manifested towards cropping of vegetables. This is also due to the fact that alongside the dissolution of the socialist agricultural property, in the very first years after 1990, the vast majority of facilities making up the national irrigation system—which is crucial to vegetable cropping—were rendered nonusable while the State (the owner thereof) did not perform any investments whatsoever in this particular respect.