IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v45y2014i4p732-752.html

‘Romanian Peasants’ into ‘European Farmers’? Using Statistics to Standardize Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Antoine Roger

Abstract

type="main"> In this article, the agricultural sector in Romania provides the basis of a sociological enquiry into the contribution of statistics to the definition of legitimate economic organization. Using the analytical tools developed by James C. Scott, the emphasis is laid on the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) developed by the European Commission to define ‘economically viable’ farms. The measurement units which the FADN provides are applied at national level to determine legitimate agricultural practices. This imposes a productivist definition of the agricultural economy which diverges from the modes of social and economic organization observed in rural areas in Romania. Four million Romanian citizens make their living directly from working the land. The majority own smallholdings received during decollectivization and practise subsistence farming at the fringes of the legal economy. Instead of employing a definition of agriculture consistent with their practices and developing local distribution channels, quantification instruments provided by the European Commission form the basis of a selection procedure among these smallholders. These instruments have enabled the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture to set a threshold of ‘economic viability’ below which producers are deemed unable to develop a commercial approach to their activities. The objective is to help those who just about reach the required level to consolidate their agricultural holdings and take up intensive farming. The remainder are disqualified and encouraged to leave the sector. To further this objective, the category ‘semi-subsistence’ agriculture has been created and takes centre stage in all measures implemented. Nevertheless, the statistical dividing lines on which this category is based have no substance and the structure of agriculture is manifesting high levels of inertia.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoine Roger, 2014. "‘Romanian Peasants’ into ‘European Farmers’? Using Statistics to Standardize Agriculture," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(4), pages 732-752, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:4:p:732-752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/dech.12102
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Raynolds, 2000. "Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 297-309, September.
    2. Brian VAN Arkadie, 1973. "National Accounting and Development Planning: A Review of Some Issues," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 15-31, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wolz, Axel & Möllers, Judith & Micu, Marius Mihai, 2020. "Options for agricultural service cooperatives in a postsocialist economy: Evidence from Romania," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 49(1), pages 57-65.
    2. Małgorzata Stec & Mariola Grzebyk, 2018. "The implementation of the Strategy Europe 2020 objectives in European Union countries: the concept analysis and statistical evaluation," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 119-133, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Osterhoudt, Sarah & Galvin, Shaila Seshia & Graef, Dana J. & Saxena, Alder Keleman & Dove, Michael R., 2020. "Chains of Meaning: Crops, commodities, and the ‘in-between’ spaces of trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. Sylvaine Poret, 2007. "Les défis du commerce équitable dans l'hémisphère Nord," Working Papers hal-00243061, HAL.
    3. De Devitiis, Biagia & D'Alessio, Massimiliano & Maietta, Ornella Wanda, 2008. "A comparative analysis of the purchase motivations of Fair Trade products: the impact of social capital," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44148, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Iain Davies & Lynette Ryals, 2010. "The Role of Social Capital in the Success of Fair Trade," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(2), pages 317-338, October.
    5. Bacon, Christopher, 2005. "Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 497-511, March.
    6. Laura T. Raynolds & Douglas Murray & Peter Leigh Taylor, 2004. "Fair trade coffee: building producer capacity via global networks," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 1109-1121.
    7. repec:ags:ijag24:345263 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Ximena Rueda & Andrea Paz & Theodora Gibbs‐Plessl & Ronald Leon & Byron Moyano & Eric F Lambin, 2018. "Smallholders at a Crossroad: Intensify or Fall behind? Exploring Alternative Livelihood Strategies in a Globalized World," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 215-229, February.
    9. Valeria Borsellino & Emanuele Schimmenti & Hamid El Bilali, 2020. "Agri-Food Markets towards Sustainable Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-35, March.
    10. Tanushree Haldar & A. Damodaran, 2022. "Can cooperatives influence farmer’s decision to adopt organic farming? Agri-decision making under price volatility," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 5718-5742, April.
    11. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    12. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    13. Raynolds, Laura T., 2004. "The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 725-743, May.
    14. Barjolle, Dominique & Quiñones-Ruiz, Xiomara F. & Bagal, Monique & Comoé, Hermann, 2017. "The Role of the State for Geographical Indications of Coffee: Case Studies from Colombia and Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 105-119.
    15. Brenna Ellison & Kathleen Brooks & Taro Mieno, 2017. "Which livestock production claims matter most to consumers?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(4), pages 819-831, December.
    16. Peter Griffiths, 2010. "Lack Of Rigour In Defending Fairtrade: A Reply To Alastair Smith," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 45-49, June.
    17. Jean-Marie Codron & Lucie Siriex & Thomas Reardon, 2006. "Social and environmental attributes of food products in an emerging mass market: Challenges of signaling and consumer perception, with European illustrations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 283-297, October.
    18. María-Isabel Ortega & Cecilia Rosales & Jill Guernsey de Zapien & Patricia Aranda & Alejandro Castañeda & Socorro Saucedo & Cecilia Montaño & Alma Contreras, 2011. "Migration, Agribusiness and Nutritional Status of Children under Five in Northwest Mexico," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    19. Vellema, W. & Buritica Casanova, A. & Gonzalez, C. & D’Haese, M., 2015. "The effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 13-25.
    20. Martin, Sarah J. & Andrée, Peter, 2012. "The "Buy Local" Challenge to Institutional Foodservice Corporations in Historical Context," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 2(3).
    21. Jess Bonnan-White & Andrea Hightower & Ameena Issa, 2013. "Of couscous and occupation: a case study of women’s motivations to join and participate in Palestinian fair trade cooperatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 337-350, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:4:p:732-752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.