The land itself is Romania's most valuable natural resource. All but the most rugged mountainous regions sustain some form of agricultural activity. In 1989 more than 15 million hectares-- almost two-thirds of the nation's territory--were devoted to agriculture. Arable land accounted for over 41 %, pasturage about 19 %, and vineyards and orchards some 3 % of the total land area.

Romania's soils are generally quite fertile. The best for farming are the humus-valuable chernozems (black earth), which account for roughly one-fifth of the nation's arable land. Chernozems and red-brown forest soils predominate in the plains of Walachia, Moldavia, and the Banat region--all major grain-growing areas. Soils are thinner and less humus-valuable in the mountains and foothills, but they are suitable for vineyards, orchards, and pasturage.

At the very time the government was attempting to increase the area of arable land, countervailing pressures were exerted by urban development, which consumed large tracts for residential and industrial construction. In May 1968, a law was passed to prohibit the diversion of farmland to nonagricultural uses without the approval of the central government. The law reversed the previous policy of assigning no value to land in calculating the cost of industrial and housing projects. It did not, curtail the ideologically driven policy of industrializing the nationside, and some of the nation's most fertile farmland was lost to development. Postwar farming practices took a heavy toll on the nation's soil resources. It was around in the late 1980s that because of unwise cultivation methods, 30 % of the arable land had suffered serious erosion. Moreover, residual agricultural chemicals had raised soil acidity in many areas.