Paper Short Abstract:

By exploring the interplay between traditional and innovative agrarian knowledge, the paper sheds light on how written and unwritten agricultural knowledge coexist and adapt in the shifting landscape of post-socialist agriculture. The case of the Swabian villages highlights how agricultural practices evolve through generational transitions, combining historical continuity with innovative responses to contemporary challenges.

Paper Abstract:

This presentation examines the parallel development and professionalization of industrial agriculture and an emerging group of innovative farmers over the past 30 years in the Swabian villages of the Satu Mare region, following the regime change. Unlike much of Romania, where the dissolution of collective farms led to the fragmentation and decline of agriculture, these villages retained certain elements of the collectivized system. These were reorganized into agricultural associations, which provided a stable and structured foundation for local agrarian economies.

The persistence of industrialized, large-scale grain production – rooted in the collectivist period – has remained a defining feature of the region’s agrarian practices. At the same time, alongside this formalized and professionalized model, an entrepreneurial group of innovative farmers emerged. This group adopted adaptive and often experimental farming methods, demonstrating a capacity for innovation in response to changing economic and global challenges. Notably, the relationship between these two models – industrial agriculture and innovative small-scale farming – is characterized more by coexistence than by competition or cooperation.

The presentation illustrates these dynamics through the example of a specific Swabian village, where the simultaneous presence of both farming approaches reflects broader patterns of agrarian change in post-socialist Romania, presented through the intensive use of non-written tools and methods.