STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE ROMANIAN AGRICULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FARMING SECTOR

The paper describes changes observed in Romanian agriculture from 2002 until 2016, against the background of the situation in previous years. Romania's membership in the European Union has substantially changed the farming conditions in Romanian agriculture. Thus, the question arises: what has changed in that sector in recent years? The present article contains an attempt to answer this question. Therefore, the main of this article is to describe the agricultural holdings situation and evolution in 2002-2016 period using data from the Agricultural Census (2002, 2010 years) and Farm Structure Survey (2005, 2007, 2013, 2016 years). During the 2002-2016 period, the number of agricultural holdings has been declining. It shows that the large agricultural holdings which represent 0, 5% of total agricultural holdings manage more than 50% of utilised agricultural area. The situation of Romanian agriculture has improved substantially and it is characterised by a traditional farming which is the most dominant in terms of numbers of people involved and the geographical coverage. In Romania agriculture is an important contributor towards national economic performance.