GRAPH. Organic farming area in Romania, almost five times below EU average

Romania has 1.67 percent of its total utilized agricultural area (UAA) under organic farming, while the average in the European Union stands at 6.69 percent, according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the EU.

As of 2016, Romania had 225,450 hectares of utilized agricultural area based on organic farming. This indicator takes into account arable land, permanent grassland, permanent crops and other agricultural land such as kitchen garden.

Romania is currently among the member states with the biggest UAA, behind countries such as France, Spain and Germany with 29 million hectares, 23.8 million hectares and 16.6 million hectares, respectively.

The same ratio is recorded on the government support to agricultural research & development. In Romania, this figure stands at EUR 1.2 per inhabitant, while the EU average is of EUR 6.2 per inhabitant.

The country is doing better on the gross nitrogen balance on agricultural land. In Romania, it is 9 kg per hectare, while in the EU it climbs to 51 kg per hectare.

The ‘nitrogen balance’ includes nitrogen input (fertilising, nitrogen fixation and nitrogen deposition among other things) and nitrogen output (denitrification and the emission of ammonia among other things) and thus reflects a major part of the nitrogen cycle and the impact of farm management on the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Nitrogen input (fertilising and nitrogen fixation) more directly affects the level of biodiversity in fields and grasslands, says the European Environment Agency.