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Agriculture: Romania has most farms in EU but with small areas
The farming area in Romania dropped in 2013 by almost a million hectare compared to 2002, although Romania has the highest number of farms in EU, but with a low share of area used, an INS study shows.
The farming area used dropped by 875,000 hectares from 13.93 million ha in 2002 to 13.05 million ha in 2013, according to data of the study Structure in Agriculture 2013, made by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
Romania has 7.6% of the farming area used at EU level, being surpassed by France with 27.8 million ha (16%), Spain with 23.75 million ha (13.6%), Great Britain - 16.88 million ha (9.7%), Germany 16.7 million ha (9.6%) and Poland - 14.4 million ha (8.3%).
About a third (31.5%) of the total number of farms in EU are registered in Romania - 3.63 millions, on the drop by 6% compared to 2010. Italy has 13.2% of farms in EU, Poland 12.3% and Spain 8.1%.
“Over 2007-2013 the farming area used by farms with juridical status by 20% from 4.7 million ha to 5.7 million ha, but dropped significantly compared to 2002, when it was 6.22 million ha”, said INS president Tudorel Andrei.
He showed that over a half (55.7%) of the farming area used belongs to farms with juridical status, a category including family ventures, individual ventures and authorized persons.
Research data of the institute show that the farming area not used in Romania is of 1 million hectare.
The average size of a farm in Romania is of 3.6 ha, four times smaller than the EU average, which is 14.2 ha. The biggest average farming area is in the Czech Republic (152.4 ha), followed by Great Britain (90.4 ha), Italy (79 ha), Germany (55.8 ha), France (54 ha) and Spain (24 ha).
Farms without juridical personality have an average area of 2.o2 ham while farms with juridical status have average areas 100 times bigger - 207.5 ha.
In the structure of the farming area used, 63% represents farming land, 33.% pastures and grazing land, 2.3% permanent cultures (orchards or vineyards) and 1.2% gardens. At EU level, tilling land represents 60%, pastures 34%, permanent cultures 6.1% and gardens 0.2%.
On the other hand, Romania grows the most corn and sunflower in EU, with over a quarter of the total area registered in EU for each culture, while the area cultivated with wheat ranks 5th, after France, Germany, Poland and Spain.
In 2013 corn cultures spread on 2.21 million ha, on the rise by 8.9% against 2010. The area where wheat was grown was of 2.38 million ha in 2013, on the rise by 6.25%.
Romania ranks 4th for breeding sheep and goats, after UK, Spain and Greece. For pigs it ranks 9th after Germany, Spain, France, Denmark, Holland, Poland, Italy and Belgium.
For cattle Romania is among the first 10 EU countries, surpassed by France, Germany, UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Poland, Holland and Belgium.
The study made by INS had a budget of 2 million euros from Eurostat, but cost less, according to the INS president.