Romania, which has one-third of the total number of farms in the European Union, has a highly polarized agriculture in terms of farm size. Small and very small farms have an average size of 1.6 hectares, compared to 3.5 hectares for the European average.
In contrast, large farms in Romania average 484.6 hectares, well above the European average of 270 hectares, according to the latest data available from the National Institute of Statistics.In this context, Romania managed last year to surpass the leading producing countries in Europe in corn and sunflower production.Agriculture in Romania: 2018 record year in figures:
Record corn production 18.35 million tons, which tops Romania among European countries was achieved from an area of 2.3 million hectares, according to the National Institute of Statistics (NSI). It averaged 7.97 tons per hectare, while France in second place among European achieved a production of 12.51 million tons on an area of 1.4 million hectares, or an average of 8.93 tons per hectare. Germany, with 3.3 million tons on 0.4 million hectares, achieved an average yield per hectare close to France’s 8.25 tons.The lower yields of the two countries ranked after Romania was affected by small farms that cannot achieve high productivity. Note that the total small and very small farms in Europe, nearly 40 percent are in Romania, according to INS. Small farmers have to switch from “blackthorn seed” using hybrid varieties, experts say, and the costs would justify the results.
