AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ROMANIA – THE MAIN MODALITIES TO ATTENUATE THE CRISIS EFFECTS AND TO RESUME ECONOMIC GROWTH

The paper presents the main modalities and solutions by which agriculture and rural development can represent factors of economic-financial crisis shock attenuation and resuming economic growth. It is without doubt that the main modality to increase agriculture contribution to the general economic growth is the capital injection into economic factors (investments that create jobs, increase production and productivity on the agricultural holdings, develop infrastructure in the rural areas), the best use of financial resources by funding systems adequate to the present situation whose effects should stop the economic decline and subsequently generate economic growth. Romania, an EU Member State since 2007, must “get in line” with the funding systems used in agriculture and rural development in the European Union. However, a main remark should be made. All the CAP funding systems, adopted by the EU, from its establishment up to the present moment (except for the first system, in use in the immediate period after the Common Market was established), have been funding systems designed and implemented under strong general economic and agricultural growth conditions, for the equilibration of the agricultural market (in most cases with surplus of agricultural products), family farm consolidation and environment and landscape protection conditions, animal welfare, etc. Taking into consideration the period of generalized economic and financial crisis, in the paper it is specified that none of the funding systems of agriculture and rural development in the EU has been designed for periods of generalized economic-financial crisis or economic recession, so that certain points of view presented below, with regard to the modalities to attenuate the crisis in agriculture and to increase this sector contribution to economic growth relaunching, might be in (relative) disagreement with the present CAP funding system, adopted by the EU.