There is a single indicator Eurostat publishes every year that, read correctly, says more about the future of agriculture than all the others combined: the ratio of young to old farm managers. The number of farmers under 35 divided by the number over 55. EU-wide, it is around 1 to 9. In Romania, it is 1 to 14, the most unbalanced in the EU-27.
In other words: for every young person entering Romanian agriculture, fourteen farmers are near retirement. Many of those fourteen have no successors. The statistic is simple, but its implication is a quiet food-security crisis that will materialise over the next 10–15 years.
Romania in EU context
The comparison with the rest of the EU shows exactly where we stand.
| Country | Under 35 | Over 55 | Avg. farmer age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland | 11.3% | 39.2% | 49 |
| France | 9.8% | 44.6% | 52 |
| Netherlands | 8.2% | 47.1% | 53 |
| Germany | 7.5% | 51.4% | 55 |
| Spain | 6.1% | 62.3% | 61 |
| Italy | 5.3% | 65.8% | 62 |
| Romania | 4.1% | 63.9% | 63 |
Romania has double Poland's share of older farmers, a neighbour comparable in many ways, and less than half its share of young ones. The difference is not genetic or cultural. It is structural: Poland invested heavily after 2004 in young-farmer installation programmes and cooperative infrastructure. Romania did not.
Why young people don't want to farm anymore
European Commission and ENRD studies identify four main barriers.
- Land access. Average Romanian arable hectare prices rose from ~€2,000 (2010) to ~€7,500 (2023), a 275% increase. In good farmland in the west of the country, the hectare exceeds €12,000. For a young person without own capital, land access is nearly impossible.
- Finance access. Only 30% of EU young farmers who apply for a loan get the requested amount, per a 2022 Commission survey. In Romania the share is even lower, around 22%.
- Lack of a profitable sales channel. When you earn 13–14% of the final price, farming becomes hard work without reward. Young people seeing 3–5x higher salaries in cities do not stay.
- Bureraucracy. Applying for young-farmer subsidies (up to €70,000) requires paperwork, a business plan and 5-year predictability, exactly what an inexperienced young person cannot produce alone.
The Young Farmer Scheme: what works and what doesn't
The Common Agricultural Policy has had a dedicated tool for over a decade: the Young Farmer Scheme. Under CAP Pillar 2, farmers under 40 receive installation grants between €40,000 and €70,000, plus 25% top-up subsidies for 5 years. In theory, this is an ambitious programme. In practice, results vary dramatically between countries.
| Country | Approved applications | Budget absorbed |
|---|---|---|
| Poland | 84,500 | 92% |
| France | 61,200 | 88% |
| Italy | 37,800 | 76% |
| Spain | 29,400 | 71% |
| Romania | 8,700 | 47% |
Romania absorbed less than half of the budget available for young farmers in the last CAP programming period. The reasons are known: application complexity, lack of accessible advisory services, the requirement to already hold a land contract at application time.
The chain effect: what losing a generation means
If current trends continue, European Commission simulations estimate Romania could lose between 38% and 47% of its current farms by 2040. Most will be small farms under 5 ha, exactly the ones that produce most of the locally consumed fruit and vegetables.
The consequences cascade: accelerated rural depopulation, greater dependence on imports for perishables, abandoned land in hill and sub-mountain areas (with ecological effects on biodiversity, erosion and landscape), and production concentrated entirely in the hands of large industrial farms.
What a digital market changes
Young people entering farming today don't want to be old-style farmers. They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to plan, see predictable revenue, communicate directly with buyers, build a brand. The classical long chain offers the opposite: anonymity, dependence on big buyers, late payments, thin margins.
A digital platform that gives them visibility, instant payment, price control and access to thousands of buyers turns farming into a modern career option, not a difficult inheritance. JRC studies show that in countries where digital agricultural platforms developed over the past decade (France, Netherlands, Belgium), the share of young farmers grew by 1.5–3 percentage points in 5 years.
Why it matters: national food security
A country that loses its farmers becomes dependent on imports for basic food. Romania already imports 70% of its tomatoes, 82% of its peppers and 65% of the dill it eats (see 'Importing What We Grow'). Losing the young generation of farmers would deepen this dependence, in a European context where, since 2022, food security has returned as a strategic priority.
Methodology note
Data on farmer age comes from the Eurostat Farm Structure Survey 2020 and the European Commission thematic report 'Generational Renewal in EU Agriculture' (2022). Land-price figures come from Eurostat and the Land Market Index published by Romanian Investment Properties. Young Farmer Scheme uptake data comes from DG AGRI annual reports.
