Romania Is Having Best Farming Year In Last Five Years - EC Report

Romania is having a good farming year, as its yield per hectare is above the average in the last five years for most crops, while the wheat, barley and potato harvests exceed last year's yield, according to the MARS Bulletin drafted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

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Thanks to favorable meteorological conditions in most regions and the dry weather in July, the wheat yield will be 3.46 tons per hectare, 23.5% more than last year and 33.9% above the five-year average.

"The mean temperature values for Romania were close to normal during the considered period except in the western areas where it was 1-2°C warmer than usual," says the report. Precipitation distribution was satisfactory, but below average in the western areas, while the very hot weather in July affected spring crops.

The maize yield will be 3.86 tons per hectare, 5% lower than last year, but 20.6% above the average in the last five years.

Potato production is estimated to be 15.12 tons per hectare, up 12.4% from 2010 and 5.4% above the five-year average.

Spring barley will yield 2.06 tons per hectare, up 17.3% from 2010 and 12.9% above the average, while the winter barley harvest will be 3.13 tons per hectare, 8.4% more than last year and 17.9% higher than the average level in the last five years.

The rapeseed yield will be 1.79 tons per hectare in 2011, close to last year's level, but 18.4% higher than the mean of the last five years.

Sunflower crops will yield 1.52 tons per hectare, 2.4% less than in 2010, but 15% above the 2006-2010 average.

The sugar beet harvest will be 37.5 tons per hectare, down 2.2% on the year, but 12.8% higher than the average in the last five years.

According to the National Statistics Institute, Romania has 3.85 million registered farms, 600,000 fewer than in 2002. Of the total, only 31,000 are registered to companies.

Romania's arable land area has shrunk from 9.5 million hectares in 2002 to about 8.4-8.6 million hectares last year, Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara said recently in the conference Mediafax talks about Agriculture.

Romania last year produced 16.5 million tons of cereal, including 5.6 million tons of wheat and 9.1 million tons of maize. According to the minister, at least one million tons of cereals are not recorded by statistics, because they are consumed by the farmers themselves.

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