Semi-subsistence Farming Development in a Carpathian Declining Mining Area. A Microscale Study of Landowners’ Perception: Stulpicani Commune, Romania

Abstract

Globalization mechanisms, the new economic orientation of Romania after the Communism collapse and as a member state of the European Union have led to several transformations in the mountain rural space, which meant, beside others, changes of the land use, the closing down of the unproductive mines. The study was conducted in Stulpicani commune, Suceava County, Romanian Carpathians, between 2013 and 2014, where people turned into farming as the only country uranium active mining, nearby was resized and others were decommissioned. The aim of this paper is to analyze the semi-subsistence farmers’ perception about their farms’ development in the framework of a large return to agriculture due to the declining mining activities, and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In order to assess this, a field survey has been applied on 342 house heads of semi-subsistence farms involved in getting specific funding, which was processed in SPSS v.17 soft through Chi-square test and PCA. The results show that semi-subsistence farms represent still suitable forms of economic development of the Romania's mountain rural areas in consent with traditions and environmental offer. It is also revealed that at the first stage, 2009-2013, it is a high rate of trust in CAP, but we find some controversies between and inside groups. In this context, a common effort is need, from local to national in order to keep the tradition of farming and to find ways to maintain the advantages of EU programs to develop farms further.