IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON CAPITALIZING THE PRODUCTION OF FAMILY FARMS IN CĂLĂRAȘI COUNTY, ROMANIA.

The health crisis caused by Covid-19 generated, among many other effects, a series of dysfunctions in the agri-food system, respectively in farms, in the supply chains with inputs and agri-food products, at the level of food demand. In the existing context in the Romanian agriculture, with millions of family farms, mostly subsistence and semisubsistence ones, we initiated the present study in Călărași county obtaining information on the main challenges facing family farms during the health crisis and we summarized the farmers' proposals regarding the expectations they have from the local and national authorities in order to ensure the conditions for capitalizing the farm products. The questionnaire was applied in the agri-food markets in Calarasi and Oltenita municipalities, as well as in 9 localities in Călărași county, with a population of over 5,000 inhabitants, where weekly markets and fairs for the exploitation of agri-food products are organized. 61 questionnaires were applied and analyzed, through the survey-interview carried out between June and August 2021. The main challenges they face refer to the change of consumption patterns, blockages in the peasant markets and the increase of online deliveries, syncope in the agriindustrial processing sector, the closure of the firms from HORECA, but also of the schools, canteens, etc. All these challenges had the effect, first of all, of reducing the farmers' income due to the agricultural production decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]