Fourth Stakeholder Meeting in Romania on 18th July!

On July 16th 2024, our partner Metero Romania organised their fourth Stakeholder meeting, with  representatives from various governmental and agricultural organizations.

As an introduction, Daniel Alexandru, who leads Down to Earth activities with Romania, presented resented data on thermal, hydric, and crop phenology for the agricultural year 2023-2024, highlighted extreme temperatures in July 2024 and analyzed agrometeorological indicators from 2015-2024. This set the scene for how important our project is, with increasing impacts of climate change in the country.

With his colleague Andreea Popescu, they went to present the current activities of the project on the topic of Year 2, Access barriers to young farmers, which is the topic of the meeting. Stakeholders then had the chance to present their inputs.

• Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development highlighted challenges in increasing agricultural product value, combating desertification, and addressing rural depopulation.. They Emphasized the importance of youth engagement in rural areas and proposed educational initiatives.
• Representative from the Romanian Farmers' Association Supported generational renewal but noted barriers such as seniors' distrust and insufficient university preparation.
• AGRIColumn underlined the challenges of attracting young people to agriculture due to restrictive measures and bureaucracy.
• The Interprofessional Organization for Vegetable and Fruit Agrifood Products): Advocated for mayoral accountability and maintaining production units.
• Agency for Financing Rural Investments): introducted the existing financing opportunities for young farmers and the need for better educational and social infrastructure.
• Mr. F. Pețanca, a farmer, Shared personal experiences in agriculture and the bureaucratic challenges faced by young farmers.
• ITC Seeds stressed the importance of water management and proposed creating reservoirs and establishing forests on uncultivated land.

The discussions helped Meteo Romania in preparing a SWOT analysis on the topic, form which the have drawn general Conclusions:

• Drought and bureaucratic challenges hinder agricultural work.
• Youth in agriculture need better education and fewer bureaucratic hurdles.
• Financing for agriculture is insufficient and decreasing.
• Policies need to consider local climatic conditions.
• Emphasized the need for agricultural land merging laws and lease law updates.
• Urged participants to fill out questionnaires to inform project activities and strategies.

This collaborative approach aims to ensure that the Romanian report on the topic adequately reflects the challenges and opportunities of the country!