Romania

Romania is one of the pilot countries of the FARMWELL project. The core partners in Romania are:

The 1st Practice Group meeting with No1 group (Young, small farmers and their communities) that focused on discussion about social challenges of young farmers – took place through one in-person session on the 23 June 2021 in Șinca Veche commune – with the participation of 8 stakeholders:

• including individual farmers and non-farmers representatives such as the mayor of the village and vice-mayor, the officer in the agricultural and cadastral department.

Social challenges of farmers identified in Romania are presented in the mapping report.

The main challenges that the FARMWELL project will focus on in Romania include:

• Poor access to education and to lifelong learning
• Low household income level

The 2nd Practice Group meeting – that focused on presenting and discussing social innovations in response to crucial challenges that impact on farmers’ wellbeing – took place through face-to-face session in Brasov, Romania on 18/02/2022 with the participation of 22 stakeholders including farmer’s representatives , social innovation presenters and non-farmers’ representatives e.g representatives of local governance.

The social innovations presented during the 2nd Practice Group meeting in Romania were:

• Dealul Tarnavelor Local Action Group with the Women Neighbourhood (Vecinătatea Femeilor) initiative as an example of local governance and of mobilising small farmers communities.
• Transylvania highlands (Colinele Transilvaniei) an integrated approach to the sustainable promotion of rural communities that responds to low-income level and outmigration challenges and touches upon raising the chances of children’s education and long-life vocational training.

Romania has carried out practical innovations action according to the specific needs of the farmers, allowing experimentation & co-learning. Pilot actions have been based on collaborative & interactive models, with the purpose of creating new linkages and connections between farmers and other stakeholders, building on their capacity for long-term cooperation.

You can read the pilot report here: Connecting farming communities