RESEARCH ON THE SMALL PEASANT INDIVIDUAL HOUSEHOLDS IN ROMANIA WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE.

This paper represents a study on the evolution of agricultural holdings in small individual peasant households in Romania and their importance in sustainable agriculture. Agriculture is one of the basic branches of the national economy. Sustainable agriculture involves obtaining healthy and quality foods, conserving natural resources and preserving biodiversity. Small peasant households generally meet these requirements of sustainable agriculture, given that they generally have small areas of agricultural land near the house used mainly as family gardens that are worked more with hand tools or small machining which do not destroy soil structure by compaction, and chemicals for fighting diseases, pests and weeds are used little or no use. Also, natural fertilizers are usually used and the supplementation with macro and chemical microelements is done in balanced doses. Based on data from the Institute of Statistics, between 2002 - 2016 there is an increase of agricultural holdings in small peasant farms between 2002-2010 (in 2002 and 2010 the two General Agricultural Census took place) and a decrease between the years 2010-2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]