Intangible Agricultural Heritage of the Lipovan Community

Lipovans are a Russian speaking Old Believers minority settled in Romania since the 18th century. Agriculture is the main source of income for Lipovan farmers in Târgu Frumos. Production is principally intended for sale as raw and processed vegetables. Main products are tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers, as well as pickles and tomato sauce, directly sold in the local markets of Târgu Frumos or Iasi.

Marketed vegetables are grown mainly from commercialised exotic seeds introduced into Târgu Frumos farming system in the last fifteen years. They are believed to be more productive, thus helping Lipovan family farmers to counter the price competitiveness imposed by supermarkets. Some clients also aesthetically prefer more uniform vegetables and tend to discard the irregular ones obtained with traditional seeds. Farming with commercialised seeds, however, requires higher financial investments to acquire the seeds and the necessary chemical treatments to combat new diseases associated with these exotic vegetables.

The market gardening co-exists with garden farming for self-subsistence in the local community farming system. Garden farming concerns mainly onions, cabbages, garlic, parsley, dill and lettuces. They are referred to as the green ones. The production is predominantly intended for family consumption; only the surplus is marketed. The low economic return does not justify the financial investment in the commercialised seeds; the use of traditional seeds prevails. Additionally, Lipovan families consider vegetables grown from traditional seeds to be of better quality. Therefore, the level of self-consumption within the family production determines the propensity to use new seeds, regardless of the vegetable grown.

The community farming system is guided by the local agricultural knowledge of the Lipovan community. This is a compendium of learned experiences, mimicked processes and self-education, continuously accumulated over generations, on soil fertilisation, seed selection and cultivation processes, including irrigation. This local knowledge is also applied to the cultivation of the commercialised exotic seeds.

The RHE Initiative partners in the Romanian project “Digital Atlas of Traditional Agroecological Systems for Future Generations”. The pilot experience is implemented within the Lipovan traditional agricultural system in Târgu Frumos. The RHE Initiative is in charge of the inventory of the Lipovan intangible agricultural heritage, together with capacity-building activities on intangible cultural heritage safeguarding for communities, practitioners and local authorities. The project is led by the Rural Development Research Platform and funded by the Administrația Fondului Cultural Național.