Land reform and farm choice in Romania

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 48, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 27-37

  Sabates Wheeler, Rachel ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035535788     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2001.11655940     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Mieke Meurs and Mitchell Ginsburg, "Commercial Farming in Hungary 1991-1994: An Analysis of the Changing Balance Between Private and Cooperative Farming," Working Paper, Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC, 1996.
2. Here I refer only to land that was held in former collective farms (CAPs), not former state farms (IASs). Karen Brooks and Mieke Meurs, "Romanian Land Reform: 1991-1993," Comparative Economic Studies 36, no. 2 (summer 1994): 17-32.
3. Katherine Verdery, "The Elasticity of Land: Problems of Property Restitution in Transylvania," Slavic Review 53, no. 4 (winter 1994): 1071.
4. The ceiling on the amount of land that can be restituted has since been changed to 50 hectares.
5. In a draft version of David A. Kideckel, "Two Incidents on the Plains in Southern Transylvania: Pitfalls of Privatization in a Romanian Community," in East European Communities: Seeking Balance in Turbulent Times, ed. Kideckel (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995), p. 5.
6. Verdery, "Elasticity of Land," p. 1074.
7. Ibid.
8. For the purposes of this paper, only individual, family society, and formal association farming strategies are discussed. (Other land-use arrangements, such as various forms of leasing, are also practiced to a limited extent in southern Romania.)
9. Brooks and Meurs, "Romanian Land Reform."
10. Kideckel, "Two Incidents on the Plains," p. 7.
11. Ibid.
12. E.D. Tesliuc, "Agricultural Policies: Achievements and Challenges" (paper presented at Conference Romania, 2000, Bucharest, 1999).
13. World Bank and Government of Romania Farm Survey (1996). This survey was organized in 1996 by the World Bank and the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and co-sponsored by the European Commission. A sample of 1,650 rural households was selected at random from 120 comunas in Romania.
14. Kideckel, "Two Incidents on the Plains," p. 6.
15. These are estimates derived from survey data collected by the author in the spring of 2000. They account for the input costs of different farming types.
16. This general observation is also true of other crops, such as beans.
17. PHARE stands for "Poland and Hungary: Action for the Restructuring of the Economy." This program was established in 1989 to help these countries in the transition and integration of their economies. Within two years it had expanded to cover fourteen countries.
18. Mircea Bulgaru et al., "Probleme de Baza ale Agriculturii Romaniei," Institute of Rural Economy and Sociology of the Academy of Agricultural and Silvicultural Sciences, Bucharest, 1992, cited in Brooks and Meurs, "Romanian Land Reform."
19. Mircea Bulgaru et al., "Probleme de Baza ale Agriculturii Romaniei," Institute of Rural Economy and Sociology of the Academy of Agricultural and Silvicultural Sciences, Bucharest, 1992, cited in Brooks and Meurs, "Romanian Land Reform."
20. Henry Roberts, Rumania: Political Problems of an Agrarian State (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951), p. 294.
21. Tesliuc, Agricultural Policies; J. Leatherdale, "Land Reform: Technical and Operational Aspects," in Romania: A Strategy for the Transition in Agriculture, Working Paper vol. 2, 1993, Joint Romania-International Agricultural Strategy Team, the World Bank, in cooperation with EC-PHARE, the European Bank for Research and Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the French and German governments.
22. Tesliuc, Agricultural Policies; J. Leatherdale, "Land Reform: Technical and Operational Aspects," in Romania: A Strategy for the Transition in Agriculture, Working Paper vol. 2, 1993, Joint Romania-International Agricultural Strategy Team, the World Bank, in cooperation with EC-PHARE, the European Bank for Research and Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the French and German governments.
23. Data on farm choice were collected at both the holding and parcel levels.
24. Kideckel, "Two Incidents on the Plains," p. 4.
25. David A. Kideckel, "The Social Impact of Agrarian Reform," in Romania: A Strategy for the Transition in Agriculture.
26. In the survey "heads of households" refer to the family member identified as the head of household by the respondent. This usually meant the oldest male in the family, however, where the oldest male was considered infirm due to health reasons, the second oldest able-bodied male was typically identified. In households with an older widowed women and no men of working age in the households the oldest female was typically identified as the head of household.
27. "Working family members" includes those members of the household including and between 18 and 65 years old. For specific statistics on these household characteristics, please contact the author.
28. Brooks and Meurs, "Romanian Land Reform," p. 27.
29. World Bank and Romanian government survey (1991) AGRAP Division, Washington, DC.
30. Leatherdale, "Land Reform."
31. David A. Kideckel, "Communities in the East European Transition," in East European Communities, p. 7.
32. Ibid.
33. This has clearly not been the case in other regions of Romania. In addition, many people insisted on parceling the land and that it be in the same location.
34. This observation derives from a 1996 World Bank study that concluded, based on interviews with association managers, that formal associations are more productive than alternative farming arrangements.