The President of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Tudorel Andrei says Romania is first in the European Union on the area planted with maize and sunflower.
“In Romania there are 3.6 million farms which represent some 30% of number of farms in the EU. It seems like a very high figure, but France had the same experience. In the ‘50s it had the same number of farms, about 4 million, and over the years the number has reached 600,000. Romania has a very large share of maize, i.e. agricultural land for maize and sunflower. We rank first and hold 25% of agricultural land in Europe planted with these crops. This shows we have potential at least for this area,” the INS official has said.
During the Pria Agriculture conference he showed that almost a third of the employed population works in agriculture and provides 5-6% of the GDP, whereas developed countries have 3-4% of the employed population working in agriculture which generate 6-7% of GDP.
“There is a huge potential for the development of agricultural production in the next period,” Andrei said.