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Procedia Economics and Finance 3 (2012) 1262 1267

Emerging Markets Queries in Finance and Business

Prospects for food security in Romania

Bogdan Bazgaa,*
a

Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 6, Romana Square, district 1, Bucharest, 010374, Romania

Abstract
Food security is a global problem of humanity as it has profound implications worldwide. Hunger remains an issue of
power, which under the FAO fight against the international community. For Romania, achieve food security should be a
matter of continuing interest, the more so as agriculture and agricultural production itself is in decline highlighted, both in
livestock recording decay, as well as detrimental to the plant with transition to massive imports of food.
Open Selection
access underand/or
CC BY-NC-ND
license.
2012 TheAuthors.
Published byby
Elsevier
Ltd. Ltd.
2012 Published
Elsevier
peer-review
under responsibility of
Selection and
peer review
under responsibility
Emerging
Markets
Queries
in Finance and Business local organization.
Markets
Queries
in Finance of
and
Business
local
organization.

the Emerging

Key words: food security, agricultural potential, price volatility, climate change, food insecurity

1. Introduction

In optical view of United Nations (UN), the concept of security - national and international (collective) - is a
unit of the following dimensions: economic, food, environmental, community, demographic and military. All
these dimensions of the concept of security and mutually condition each other.
Two commonly used definitions of food security issued by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), namely, food security exists when
all people, at any time have access physically, socially and economically sufficient safe and nutritious food in
order to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active, healthy life. Food security means access

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bogdanbbi@yahoo.com.

2212-6716 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Emerging Markets Queries in Finance and Business local organization.
doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(12)00306-1

Bogdan Bazga / Procedia Economics and Finance 3 (2012) 1262 1267

for all family members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes a
minimum of ready availability of adequate nutritious foods and safe and to ensure the ability to acquire
acceptable foods in ways acceptable socially (without resorting to emergency food supplies by scanning , theft,
or other coping strategies).
Globally there are a number of risks that could have a particularly severe impact on food security of
vulnerable groups, which have a tendency to increase in recent years. These include:
The risk of high and volatile prices, which limits food consumption, population, quality of diet, health and
welfare spending in general.
financial and economic shocks, leading to job losses, higher prices and reduced accessibility to credit and
lower demand for agricultural products.
Climate change impacts, including increased incidence of adverse events such as droughts and floods, the
lower yields in developing countries will increase food insecurity.
The risks of epidemic outbreaks, epidemic and epifitice likely to increase and expand along with
urbanization, globalization and climate change.
In the spirit of the above, we emphasize that famine became endemic in the world, with the increasing
trend. According to FAO, number of hungry people currently in a chronic, is over 1.26 billion, up from 862
million estimated, on average, during 2000-2004. The existence and increasing food shortages is favored
mainly by the following factors: population growth, disasters, drought, climate disruption (caused mainly by
global warming), oil price rises, poverty, financial crisis, economic crisis, urban development, enhancing divide
between production and consumption of food, etc.
Solving the problem of world food and nutrition insecurity is one of the most important challenges of our
time. Horn of Africa countries face the crisis triggered by several seasons of irregular rainfall, causing drought
and the world is far from achieving the goal of halving the number of hungry and malnourished in the world by
2015.
2. Current and future food security in Romania
After Romania's admission to NATO - as a member with full rights and obligations - politicians with
responsibility for national security plan praised - rightly - given some participation of our troops in several
parts of the world with the potential conflicts that Our country has turned into a security provider for other
countries. But it would be "excellent" to make the same assessment and food security. Unfortunately, we are in
a plane opposite to that assessment, as at present, Romania is a "net importer" of food and therefore food
security.
The most favored countries in terms of food security are those with agricultural potential capable of
supplying large quantities of agricultural commodities and food than their national needs. These countries
include Romania, which has a rich agricultural potential, which is below this place 5 between EU countries,
able to cover the food needs of approx. 80 million people. One can appreciate that that's how the country can be
- and most of them have - of course food independence. This comparative advantage that it is Romania is
insufficiently exploited because, in the estimation of experts and national and international institutions in the
field, ca.70% of the aggregate demand for food, existing market profile of our country, is to cover the
importation of such products.
In these conditions, the current state of Romania's independence and food security is
unacceptable. Remember the same plan and forecast made by Nomura Bank of Japan, which emphasizes that
the problem will worsen food in Romania. According to this, our country ranks 12 in world food in the risk
generated - mainly - the volatitatea (vulnerability) food prices. (Table no. 1)

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Table 1. Vulnerability to food price index for the first 40 countries with food risk

Source: Bussiness Inteligence nr. 5074/2011, pag. 33

Regarding vulnerability to diseases caused by food prices on the world market, Robert Zoellick, World
Bank President, made the following account: "This is the case for alarm because the trend of rising prices
causing suffering among poor people around the world.", But urged the international community to be aware of
this risk and should not aggravate the problem by imposing measures such as banning exports or managed
pricing. Also asked G20 leaders to consider nutrition as priority number 1 of 2011. The same plan of power
issues, Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the OECD, noted that "agricultural markets have always been
volatile, but if governments cooperate, extreme variations in price can be reduced and vulnerable consumers
and producers can be protected".
Entries above the current and future food security trends in Romania are supported by adverse developments
of indicators which are characterized by feeding the population, respectively: average monthly consumption per
person to main food products, the share of own consumption in total consumption of products food and foreign
trade with agricultural products.
3. Food security situation in Romania
Food security = amount of food needed to ensure people.
For over four decades, the world and in Romania, have made remarkable progress in food production and
food security. However, if food security progress is rather slow and depends largely on social and political
conditions at some point.

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Rapid changes taking place in government structure and authority in the global economy, the structure of
agriculture and food industries local and global trade and the globalization and trade liberalization lead to rapid
changes in consumer needs and the requirements on quality and food safety, food security, nutrition, legislation
and control. Development of new technologies, the emergence of new knowledge about food and food come to
satisfy all these requirements in a particular measure.
Food security can be provided and by finding new solutions feasible to obtain food with high nutritional
value by means of biotechnological but also by efficient use of existing natural resources, by exploiting the full
potential of their goals is becoming more urgent the years to come.
The main guiding ideas on the importance of the food security and agriculture as the main branch of the
Romanian economy to ensure vital public resources and arguments, which help us in drawing the essential
elements of impact, giving the side of safety on all levels social life: idividual, national, regional and global
deserved place among the other similar size, especially in light of EU integration as Romania's national interest.
These changes will have serious effects on the five dimensions of food security:
Food availability,
Price volatility,
Population access to food availability,
Food utilization
Stability of food.
For Romania, its sub-branches agriculture - growing plants and animals, agri-food industry, is one of the
most important resources development.
Also, by identifying hazards, threats and risks to food security, can predict the main vulnerabilities of
agriculture and agri-food industry, which are the most diverse:
vulnerabilities that directly affect the natural environment - soil, water, air, energy)
stocking or excessive exploitation: underdeveloped infrastructure, mainly the critical one, starting with the
production: agricultural machinery obsolete and physical storage space, enough energy networks developed
transport network of food products
unable to access European funds, which were established by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the
period 2007/2013. ,
increased fragmentation of agricultural land being majority owned by farmers (where only 4% of national
arable land is owned by the top 50 agricultural producers operating and recovery potential, only 7 million
hectares may be subject to EU funds since February, 4 mil.ha are of some subsistence farms;
lack of adaptation of the legal status of farmers households at the micro-firm to qualify both for accessing
funds for rural infrastructure development and improving living standards of farmers by financing national
and accessing funds for agriculture funds Specific.
Impairment of the technical and investment stagnation, destruction of assets (irrigation, plantations,
machinery, livestock, etc..)
In the opinion of many experts, the food security of a country is the most important dimension of national
security. A State food security if it has sufficient availability of food and agricultural products, able to cover
food needs for all people included in its borders and ensure at the same time, stocks needed for livestock, and
water in case natural disasters, war, crisis, etc. Failure to ensure food security can generate internally,
convulsions and social tensions, physical and psychological damage to people, can create economic and
political instability, and may attract external diplomatic pressure, economic and political effects and unwanted
dangerous to national security.

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4. Conclusions
In conclusion, price developments in recent years, per capita average consumption and self-consumption
and foreign trade in agricultural products show a poor outcome on agricultural production, especially food
security of the population.
Increasing exploitation of agricultural potential can turn Romania into an independent state in the food
security of the population, but also such security provider to other countries through a net exporter of
agricultural products, raw materials and food. But this can be achieved only through appropriate strategies and
policies to stimulate investment in this sector and increase performance and competitiveness of the agricultural
sector as a whole and in all economic organizations in it. Moreover, the OECD believes that "investments in
agriculture in developing countries will be particularly important for increasing the amount of food available,
and to obtain income and creating jobs."
Without a systemic approach and without proper financial support and investment strategies and policies
together with agricultural and rural development performance, our country's food security can be strongly
affected in the future. It should be noted that this will be amplified by global warming and climate instability in
general, the deepening and broadening territory manifestation of drought and other natural phenomena have a
negative impact on agriculture.
We say that food safety is of utmost importance, its absence can generate internally, convulsions and social
tensions, affecting physical and mental health of the population, can create economic and political instability
and external pressure can occur diplomatic, economic, political, unwanted and dangerous effects on national
security.
Is there a food safety when a state has significant availability of agricultural products, plants and animals,
able to ensure the needs of the entire population with agricultural commodities, provide the raw materials
industry and not least, to create necessary conditions for conducting stock situations.
Acknowledgements
This work was cofinaced from the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Programme Human
Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU/107/1.5/S/77213

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