EU Stumps up Cash For Romanian Countryside

The European Commission on Tuesday approved a Rural Development Programme for Romania, RDP, aimed at improving the competitiveness of the EU farming sector, caring for the countryside and climate, and strengthening the economic and social fabric of rural communities by 2020.

The programme is to be funded with some 9.5 billion euro, out of which 8.1 billion will come from the EU budget.

Modernization of some 3,400 farms and cooperatives, support for young farmers starting up, sustainable land management and improved broadband infrastructures are among the priority actions of the adopted programme.

The programme will also include payments to support biodiversity and promote environmentally-friendly land for more than 1.3 million hectares of agricultural land and more than 800 000 ha of forests. A further 4.7 million ha will receive support to prevent land abandonment and soil erosion.

Another goal is to train some 184,000 people and to create almost 27,000 jobs in rural areas. The programme will also support setting up and developing 3,000 non-agricultural businesses in rural areas.

Almost half of Romania's 19.5 million people still live in rural areas. But agriculture has long lacked investment, while other problems include the fragmentation of holdings, property-related lawsuits, obsolete technology and the flight of young people to urban areas.

Ironically, agricultural land is not seen as an asset by most Romanians, who tend to consider agriculture a thing of the past.

As many as 1.3 million hectares of arable land lie unused in Romania, according to statistics. The total agricultural surface in Romania is 14.7 million hectares, of which 9.3 million hectares are arable.