Abstract:

The depopulation, corroborated with population ageing has made the Romanian rural areas vulnerable both from economic and social point of view. This vulnerability is acutely manifested within the agricultural sector due to shortage of personnel, limited financial resources and the effects of climate changes being more and more present. A possible solution for the revival of the rural area is represented by the establishment of agricultural cooperatives with the role of protecting and developing the production and the agro-food chain. Romania is at the beginning of a new road in the development of cooperation between farmers. Due to the increase in the acknowledgement degree of European and global cooperatives, many initiatives for the creation of new cooperatives have been performed in the last years. In this context it is important to understand the activity of modern agricultural cooperatives, the factors influencing it and their impact on agro-food producers, in order to identify and promote adequate policies ad legislative measures which would lead to a sustainable development of the rural area.