National Strategy for Agriculture in Romania – Horizon 2035

Abstract

In this paper we formulate and develop foundation targets for the Romanian agri-food sector in the short, medium and long terms. The national strategy must have in view the main impact trends such as: innovation, knowledge transfer, institutional cooperation and re-organisation, infrastructure development, cohesion between the local, regional, national and European policies and projects. The development in the world of tomorrow, Horizon 2020-2035, is expected to include: significant technological advances in biology, genetics and agriculture; development of communication, IT, cognitive sciences; China’s economic rise; European demographic decline; European Union (EU) economic stagnation and gradual loss of competitiveness in the face of new emergent countries; climate changes. In this context, the conditionality of the population’s food security draws attention to major issues that Romania will face in the medium and long terms, such as: population decline and aging, progressive depletion of the productive potential of soil in the absence of supporting measures, and research fragility for agriculture sector. To answer the questions related to food safety and security in Romania towards 2030-2035, SWOT analysis was used for the following products: cereals, vegetables, fruit, meat and processed products. The analysis revealed certain vulnerabilities: Romania’s domestic agricultural supply is insufficient in a range of products; annual instability for domestic agricultural supply; Romania’s competitiveness in many agricultural products is problematic, and the integration into the European single market has amplified these problems; low level of processing the agricultural raw materials and of value added; low income and income gaps between the residence areas resulting in food insecurity; existing problems in rural areas, mainly with weak infrastructure; poor food consumption in terms of quality. Then, we defined three main strategic directions for food security and safety in Romania, in the next two decades, trying to identify those areas on which Romania should focus its efforts to reach performance convergent with the developed countries of the EU. The proposed scenarios show the ways in which we see to achieve the identified targets.