FEASIBILITY STUDY ON SETTING UP AND RUNNING A POULTRY MICRO-FARM RESPECTING THE EUROPEAN STRATEGY OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Today European Union provides member countries funds for many types of business and in particular for the development of rural environment. In this sense, this paper draws the main steps of a feasibility study for accessing European funds to develop and run a microfarm respecting sustainable development principles imposed by European Union. The work theme is based on establishment poultry farms in order to achieve and to exploit the production of eggs, of meat consumption and poultry compost marketed as fertilizer manure for crops. Such investment opportunity is therefore evident. According to sustainable development in agriculture, an intensive breeding system is required to produce eggs in the current economic conditions of factory farms and throughout an entire year. One of the objectives of such an investment is to create jobs in agriculture, which contributes to regional development. A rule of sustainable development in agriculture sustains that majority of hens in many countries are reared in battery cages, although the European Union Council Directive 1999/74/EC[14] has banned the conventional battery cage in EU states from January 2012, being also inadequate and expensive. Hens should be raised in halls on permanent bedding. Developping poultry farms is not only in the interest of new producers in Romania, but also in national interest, because Romania is a strong tipping country with favourable pedo-climatic conditions for poultry and with a rich experience in breeding birds, especially in the production of eggs for consumption, being considered the easiest and most accessible activity in aviculture. Such an investement fits into the National Rural Development Programme, Measure 121 Modernisation of agricultural holdings - Axis of increasing competitiveness of agricultural and forestry sector.