Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the conflict between small farmers and agricultural associations in the Swabian villages of the Satu Mare region, Romania from the regime change to the present day.

Paper long abstract:

The economic transformation following the regime change in Romania resulted in the impoverishment of a significant part of society. The closure of non-profitable communist industrial facilities has resulted in increased urban-rural migration, as a result of which the previously vacated countryside has been repopulated. The immediate abolition of collective farms after the change of regime – a typical phenomenon in Romania – also forced the rural population towards repeasantization. The peculiarity of the Swabian villages of Satu Mare, which are the sites of my research, is that they were able to act effectively against the processes listed above and were much less vulnerable to macroeconomic processes. Perhaps the most important reason for this was the establishment and effective operation of agricultural associations, successors organizations to collective farms. These associations provided a stable basis for the everyday life of the community, sometimes taking over public tasks from the dysfunctional Romanian state, and also providing basic food supplies to their members especially when it was most needed, during the transition period. The price of this was the abolition of multi-legged, diversified farming and the rise of industrialized monocultures. Moreover, exploiting their monopoly position prevent the emergence of a new wave of individual and family farmers. Which model is going to prevail? In my paper, through three examples, I outline the possible scenarios and their social and economic consequences.