Agricultural Programs in the Danube Delta and the Danube Flood Plain

The two geographical units, i.e. the Danube Delta and the Danube Floodplain, are the largest wetlands in Romania, being flooded permanently or periodically, partially or totally. Over time, they have also been used by agriculture, as pastures or even as arable lands, but on small areas. A change in the use of the two wetlands occurred in 1945 when the new political power aimed at increasing the arable area at any cost to 10 million hectares. For this purpose, programs for the drainage and agricultural development of the two wetlands were drawn up periodically. As far as the Danube Delta is concerned, these programs remained, with only a few exceptions, on paper alone; however, in the Danube Floodplain, an area of over 400,000 hectares was drained at high costs, with disastrous consequences for the environment and inefficient results in terms of agriculture. This paper tackles these issues and presents the results obtained.