Small farms, small food businesses and sustainable food security (SALSA) Policy Brief: Eastern Europe

The EU-funded SALSA project set out to examine a potentially very important role of small farms – their contribution to food security. 
Research was conducted in 11 Eastern European (EE) regions (NUTS3 level) of 7 EE countries – Romania (RO), Poland (PL), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (HR) and Czech Republic (CZ). Small farms in Eastern Europe are an important part of the agricultural structure in their countries. They represent between 37% of the agricultural holdings (in LV) and 90% (in RO). SALSA findings indicate that, in 43% of the food systems studied, EE small farms produce 80-100% of the key products consumed in their region, and therefore contribute significantly to regional availability. In these regions, small farms also contribute to access to food for their households and communities. The Eastern European food systems studied by SALSA seem however to be undergoing change. One third (34%) show balanced patterns of regional consumption and export, while another 22% of food systems contribute to FNS outside their regions.