The interwar agriculture: ideal or trap

Abstract

This paper intends to reveal considerable historic realities regarding the Romanian agriculture, which may be considered the main reasons of the failure of implementing efficient strategies after the year of 1989. The well-known sayings “Romania, the granary of Europe”, “The strong interwar Romanian Leu” and “Romania – peony of the interwar period” are analyzed based on statistic data with the aim to divulge the truth about the Romanian agriculture in the interwar period. Results indicate that the import of cereals (not wheat) in Europe was on average 5% from Romania, which is an insignificant percentage for the consumption balance of the European continent. Moreover, two periods of time are considered to compare the Romanian agriculture before and after 1989. The unstructured agriculture, the exaggerated fragmentation of the agriculture land and the use of subsistence agriculture on many agricultural surfaces of the country lead Romania to be declassified in the world hierarchy of the average cereal production, from position number 8 occupied before 1989 to position number 14 in the hierarchy of the analyzed countries and regions for the period 1990-2007.