STUDY ON CULTIVATED AREAS AND PRODUCTIONS IN ROMANIA IN THE MAIN CROPS IN AN EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Romanian land resources are immense, but certain land-ownership laws have caused a fragmentation of agricultural areas. Romania suffers from fragmentation of agricultural properties. Compared to other Member States of the European Union, Romania has an average farm size similar to that of Malta or Cyprus, island countries with much less agricultural land than Romania. Almost 75% of farms in Romania have less than 20 ha, and the share of farms under 10 ha represents about 98% of the total number and 38% of the total agricultural area used. In this paper, the authors analyse the situation of cultivated areas and productions in the main crops in Romania under the current conditions. Romania is one of the European countries with the most favourable soil and climate conditions for agriculture. Romania's natural conditions indicate that more than 60% of the total area of our country can be used for agriculture. The role of agriculture is an extremely important one for today's society because it can provide the necessary production of food for the population, raw materials for different industries, as well as production for export. Agriculture is one of the sectors where the Member States of the European Union have agreed to share both public funding and responsibilities. Studies carried out for this paper show that Romania is one of the main agricultural producers at European level and that it ranks among the countries of the European Union in terms of the area under cultivation and production of the main agricultural crops. The authors of the paper conclude that Romania is also one of the top ten exporters of wheat and maize in the world. Analyses show that agriculture is one of the few branches of the economy that have ranked Romania in the European top of the first places in the production of cereals and oilseeds obtained each year.