New Europe College Regional Program Yearbook 2001-2002

SRÐAN ÄLJUKIÇ
Revolution, these divergent interests led to internal conflicts in some
villages.
A dual agricultural system emerged out of the land reform (Tesliuc,
1999: 6-7). On one side, we find the small-scale subsistence farm sector,
accounting for about 60% of land and livestock. It was totally
disconnected from the market: 50% of food consumed by the average
Romanian family is produced by the family itself, whilst for farmer-headed
households it is 80%. On the other side, there are market-oriented
agricultural producers, such as state farms (whose privatization started
much later and also happened slowly) and commercial agricultural
companies.
Table 2. - Land fragmentation in Romania: 1948 versus 1998.
% of
farms
1948 1998
U nder
1 hectare
3 6%
45%
1 -2
hectares
2 7%
24%
O ver
2 hectares
3 7%
31%
Total 100100 Source: Tesliuc (1999)
The fragmentation of land was even greater than before
collectivization started in 1948-49 (Table 2). Over four million landowners
with average holdings of slightly over 2 hectares divided among several
plots took the place of CAPs. The newly-emerged class of small-scale
farmers – peasants – lacked almost any form of capital – economic,
social, cultural or political. They had to cope with four major problems
in their economic activity (Tesliuc, 1999: 30-32):
1. Most of the land was restituted to elderly people – peasants who
were forced to join CAPs in the period 1949-62 and become their
employees. Pensioners’ households account for 41% of the rural
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