Programs and projects

Rural development

The Romanian Association of Rural and Agri-Food Economy “Virgil Madgearu”, on the basis of its research works, intends to develop socio-economic databases referring to the current situation of rural communities, the sustainable rural development opportunities, occupational diversification, entrepreneurial spirit, socio-economic determinants of traditional ecological agriculture, of peasants’ and farmers’ ecological, production and commercial behaviour.

The conducted studies focused on the economic, institutional, and axiological opportunities, as well as on the dysfunctional processes of rural communities. In this respect, the multi-disciplinary teams consisting of the association members made a socio-economic and ecologic assessment of the real and latent potential of rural communities and designed rural area modernization strategies at regional, zonal and local level.

Completed Projects

• Rural development in Romania” – PHARE RO-9505-04-043 project, February – November 1998: socio-economic diagnosis of rural communities from southern Romania, sociologic studies in pilot rural areas and design of local alternative strategies.
  
• “Comparative study of land fragmentation: social and economic impact on rural society in four candidate countries” – FAO project, December 1999 – July 2000: identification of the legal, conceptual, methodological and managerial framework, both for the public authorities and for the civil society, of measures for changing the rural living conditions and for increasing efficiency and competitiveness for sustainable agriculture and rural development.
  
• “Institutional rural development patterns in Central and Eastern Europe” – FAO (SDA and SEUR) project, December - June 1998: design of post-transition rural development models for the specific conditions of former centrally planned economies.
  
• “Organization of the national Farm Accountancy Data Network on the incomes and economy of agricultural households from Romania”, European Union Commission, November 2001 – November 2003: the objective was to create the premises for setting up a national statistical-economic information system on private farming. The specific objectives and activities were materialized into: the creation of managerial (non-fiscal) accountancy and technical-economic consultancy centers at county level; development of private farmers’ managerial abilities; creating the premises for the operation of a national farm accountancy data network with statistical purpose, necessary for the substantiation of agricultural policies.
  
• “Consortium for rural diversification and extension” – World Bank project, 2003-2004: institutional and economic analyses of rural organizations and farms from Călăraşi county; sociologic analyses of farmers’ organizational behaviours and expectations in the investigated area; implementation and institutionalization of the farm system integration pattern from Călăraşi county.
  
• “Technical support for the cooperation between the University Business Incubator Giurgiu and the Business Incubator Ruse”, PHARE – CBC, November 2004 – February 2005: the main objective of the project was to evaluate the current economic and social situation and of the business environment from Danubius Euroregion and establishment of development strategies for both investigated areas (Giurgiu, Romania and Ruse, Bulgaria); identification of cross-border rural business patterns.
  
• “Structural reform and competitive candidate countries. Agriculture in an enlarged Europe. Farming Systems pre-modelling and farm type classification. Romania’s case”, ESTO project-GOPA – Cartermill International, 2003-2004: analysis of the stage of structural reforms in Romania’s agriculture and of the new farm system resulting from these; design and modeling of the system of farms that will operate in Romania at the moment of accession to the European Union.
  
• “Support the MAA of the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture Forests and Rural Development to prepare the rural development fisheries programs”, PHARE, February – March 2007: rural case studies on fisheries sector development.
  

Agri-food Economy

The complex agri-food economy issue has been reflected in the studies of the specialists from the Romanian Association of Rural and Agri-Food Economy “Virgil Madgearu”, by approaching the interdependency between the problem of providing food for the population and the agricultural and food policy objectives and the interdependency between the food equilibrium and food security issues. Another aspect revealed by the studies from this category refers to the agri-food policies, defined and analyzed as intervention systems targeting the improvement and increase of agri-food system performance along its chains.

A chapter of this complex issue was represented by food policy analyses focusing upon the governmental interventions (food subsidy programs), nutritional policies, macro-economic policy measures on the food sector (monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial policy); studies on the instruments specific to the agri-food policy were carried out: agricultural and food price policy, agricultural marketing policy, labour force policy, environmental policies, consumer protection policies.

Underway Projects

• COMPETE Project (www.compete-project.eu/)
• “International comparisons of product chains in the agro-food sectors: determinants of their competitiveness and performance on EU and international markets (COMPETE)”- framework Program 7, 2012-2015: case studies on the innovation process and performance of food companies; dissemination of project results.

Completed Projects

• “Roots of Quality”- PHARE small projects, November 2004 - April 2005 – the main purpose of the project was to raise awareness on a common European issue, food quality and safety. The project specific aim was to investigate the issue of the European food quality system and the problem of the origin labelled products from a complex (economic, juridical, social and market) perspective.
• "Regoverning markets”- Budapest University of Economic Science and Public Administration project, March-October 2004: elaboration of the country report on Romania; dissemination organization (workshop in Romania).
  
• “Agri-food system in Romania – evaluation of fields and sensitive points along the chains with maximum attractiveness and efficiency for investments”, national fund AGRAL 6001 no. 228/2004 – November 2004-January 2005: the main objective of the project was the evaluation of the agri-food system from Romania and of the sensitive points along the chains, in agreement with the sustainable economic development principles. Specific objectives: evaluation of the Romanian agri-food products competitiveness, evaluation of investments from the agri-food sector and their role in chain modernization, with the identification of the attractiveness points for new investments.
  
• “Assistance for the elaboration of a new carcass classification system”, PHARE project, (Danish Meat Research Institute), May-July 2006: elaboration of a new analysis of the meat sector in Romania on pigs, bovines and sheep.
  
• “Determinants of the ecological consumer behaviour”, World Bank, March-May 2006: quantification of the influence of independent variables on the ecological consumer behaviour.
  
• “Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in Romania” United Kingdom Embassy project, July - September 2007: analysis of the impact of European regulations and intervention systems in the Romanian agricultural and agri-food area.