COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE NUMBER OF AGRICULTURAL FARMS, THE AVERAGE SIZE AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN THE SOUTH-MUNTENIA AND SOUTH-EAST REGIONS OF ROMANIA.

Starting from the importance of the optimal size of an agricultural holding for increasing the efficiency of the activity carried out, the objective of this work was to carry out a comparative analysis between 2 development regions of Romania regarding the situation of agricultural holdings. The choice of the two regions, South-Muntenia and South-East, was made based on their agricultural potential, and the monitored indicators were both the number of agricultural holdings and their size. The analysis assumed the monitoring of the evolution of the indicators in the period 2010-2020. The comparison was made not only between the two development areas, but also at the national and community level, the aim being to identify some solutions for the development and increase of the economic performance within the agricultural holdings in Romania and for the reduction of existing gaps both at the national and regional level and community. In order to carry out the research, we started from the analysis of specialized literature, following the role that agriculture has in economic development, as well as how it contributes to the formation of the GDP, followed by the collection, processing and analysis of regional and community statistical data regarding to the situation of agricultural holdings. The processing and interpretation of the data allowed us to formulate conclusions regarding the situation of agricultural holdings in the two development regions and to formulate recommendations. From the conducted research, it emerged that there are differences in Romania's agriculture both at the national and regional levels. For the year 2020, the average surface of an agricultural holding in Romania was 4.42 ha, which shows that in the Sud-Muntenia region the holdings are the closest to this average, having an area of 4.4 ha. At the level of the South-East region, the agricultural area is almost 50% larger than the average area, given that it is 6.7 ha. This influences both the way agricultural land is exploited and the profitability of agricultural holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]