To combat the destructive effects of recurrent droughts, a large-scale program of irrigation was undertaken by the government. Execution of the program, however, has consistently lagged behind the plans.

LAND USE

In 1970 agricultural land comprised almost 37 million acres (63 percent of the country), about two-thirds of which was arable. The balance was devoted to pastures, meadows, vineyards, and orchards. During the decade of the 1960s substantial additions to the agricultural area were made through various land improvement measures. At the same time, however, large acreages were diverted to industrial and residential uses, particularly of the more valuable arable land. The net result was an increase in the total farmland area, mainly in orchards and pastures, and a decline in the arable acreage (see table 7).

Table 7. Land Use in Romania, Selected Years, 1960-70¹
(in thousands of acres)

1960196219691970
Agricultural Land
Arable24,26824,51524,14624,050
Pasture 6,953 6,924 7,426 7,420
Meadow 3,427 3,447 3,506 3,499
Vineyard 768 744 857 857
Orchard 529 662 1,053 1,067
Total Agricultural Land35,94536,29236,98836,893
Foreset Land15,82215,80715,60715,604
¹ Agricultural land by type of use and forest area.
Source: Adapted from Anuarul Statistic al Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1970 (Statistical Yearbook of the Socialist Republic of Romania, 1970), Bucharest, 1970, pp. 246-247.

Forests occupied an area of 15,604,000 acres in 1970, the equivalent of about 27 percent of the country's land surface. The forest acreage declined slowly but steadily after 1961, for a total loss of almost 247,000 acres.

Slightly more than two-thirds of the more than 24 million acres of crop area in 1969 was under grains. Technical crops for industrial uses, consisting mainly of oilseeds and sugar beets, and fodder crops occupied almost one-fourth of the sown area. The remainder of less than 10 percent was devoted to legumes, potatoes, vegetables, and melons and to seed-producing and experimental plots. Half the grain acreage was devoted to corn, which is used for food and feed by the farmers; and more than two-fifths was under wheat, which is the staple food of the urban population.

The grain acreage declined in absolute and in relative terms after 1960, when it accounted for almost three-fourths of the sown area. All other major crop acreages, excluding that under sugar beets, increased during the 1960-69 period (see table 8). Romanian economists attributed the shift in the crop pattern to the government's emphasis on adapting crop production to the economic needs of the country and to the natural conditions of individual farms. A severe flood in the spring of 1970, the worst in the country's history, reduced the crop area by nearly 1.25 million acres below the level of 1969.

Table 8. Cultivated Acreage in Romania, by Major Crops, 1960 and 1969
(in thousands of acres)

Crop19601969
Grain
Wheat 7,008 6,817
Corn 8,826 8,137
Other 1,626 1,263
Total17,46016,217
Legumes 381 474
Technical crops (for industrial uses)
Oleaginous 1,396 1,576
Sugar beets 494 445
Other 252 341
Total 2,142 2,362
Potatoes 722 754
Vegetables and melons 516 591
Fodder crops 2,711 3,356
Seed-producing and experimental plots 119 235
Total Cultivated Acreage24,05123,989
Source: Adapted from Anuarul Statistic al Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1970 (Statistical Yearbook of the Socialist Republic of Romania, 1970), Bucharest, 1970, pp. 306-307.