Crop Management. Case Study: Romanian Soybean Production

Soy is a plant adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of Romania, which may bring important benefits for the farmers, animal breeding sector and food industry in Romania. The paper proposes an analysis of the soy domestic sector in European and international context, from the perspective of the crop management. Although Romania has the necessary natural resources, qualified personnel and tradition in soy cultivation, the domestic farming sector cover only part of the internal demand, and more than 70% of the market needs are ensured by imports from partners outside the EU Community. A high percentage of the imported products destined to food come from transgenic soybean cultures, forbidden in the European agriculture. The commercial balance of Romania’s soybean foreign trade was strongly misbalanced in the last years, being dominated by import of soy products for animal fodders. The application of national strategies on crop management, meant to support soybean production and processing could reduce the dependency on imports and assure Romania an important position on the European an international market.