Search Results (189)

Organic farming in the European Union is strongly shaped by Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support, yet participation durability remains less examined than supported organic area or organic–conventional comparisons. This study assesses whether the length of participation in CAP-supported organic farming is associated with the organizational, production, and economic outcomes of organic farms in Poland. It applies a two-level approach: CAP support trajectories based on ARMA data for 2008–2025 and organic production duration based on Polish FSDN data for 2008–2022. A comparative analysis was conducted of the characteristics of the potential, organization, and economic situation of farms with varying levels of persistence within the organic farming support system. The frequent variation in the results obtained indicates the distinct characteristics of these groups of farms. The results show that organic farming in Poland is highly CAP-dependent and follows an unstable trajectory, with expansion up to 2012–2013, subsequent decline, and renewed growth after 2019. Longer participation is associated with differences in land resources, supported organic UAA, ANCs conditions, production organization, and livestock presence, indicating both adaptation and structural selectivity. FSDN data show that fully organic farms have lower land and labor productivity than conventional farms, but persistent fully organic farms achieve similar income per hectare when subsidies are included; without subsidies, their income remains much weaker. The findings indicate that the evaluation of organic farming support should move beyond beneficiary counts and certified organic area to include participation durability, production-system coherence, economic viability, and territorial embeddedness. More differentiated instruments are needed to strengthen durable, knowledge-intensive, and territorially embedded organic farming systems. Full article

The European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) commits, in its Treaty foundation, to a fair standard of living for the agricultural community and, in its post-2014 architecture, to enhanced territorial cohesion. Yet repeated reform cycles have left the regional concentration of payments in many Member States visibly untouched. This paper asks why. We document the persistence of the territorial concentration of CAP transfers across the 13 Greek NUTS-2 regions over the 2010–2025 period (€47.65 bn cumulative), identify the CAP design mechanisms that mechanically reproduce it, and quantify how much of the observed aggregate stationarity is the artefact of compositional shifts versus genuinely offsetting forces. Using the universe of payment disbursements aggregated to 13 NUTS-2 regions and 51 NUTS-3 prefectures, we (i) test for σ- and β-convergence and Lorenz dominance, (ii) decompose Theil-T between and within regions and across Pillar I/Pillar II, and (iii) run four counterfactual simulations: Pillar II share held at its 2010 level, Article: 17-style capping at a 12–15% NUTS-2 ceiling, an Article: 29-style lower-tail floor, and a concentration-elasticity perturbation of the top region. The territorial distribution of support proves strikingly stable: standard inequality measures stay within a narrow band for sixteen consecutive years, and the ranking of regions barely changes, so formal convergence tests detect no narrowing over time. Three messages follow. First, this persistence is not accidental but built into the architecture of the CAP—through historical-reference entitlement values, the per-hectare logic of the Basic Payment Scheme, the geographic concentration of coupled support in cotton and livestock, and the cadastral fragmentation of the island prefectures. Second, the apparent stability conceals two large and opposing forces: the post-2014 expansion of Pillar II has reduced regional disparities, while a widening of the Pillar I distribution has increased them by almost the same amount, so aggregate stationarity reflects policy effort cancelling out, not the absence of it. Third, the instruments already in the CAP toolbox have real redistributive power: capping the largest region’s envelope and redistributing the surplus to lagging regions, or introducing a lower-tail floor, would roughly halve measured inequality. Therefore, the spatial concentration of CAP transfers in Greece is a designed equilibrium rather than an unsolved residual, and reducing it requires instruments that act asymmetrically on the top of the distribution. Full article

The European Union (EU) and national governments have set clear targets to reduce agricultural emissions, including ammonia from manure spreading practice, with regulations such as the Ambient Air Quality (AQ) and Clean Air Directives, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Green Deal, with implication for ecosystem services and landscape planning, reflecting broader environmental sustainability objectives including those addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Informative Inventory Reports (IIRs) are critical tools within the EMEP/EEA framework for monitoring long-range transboundary air pollution. They utilize three distinct methodological tiers (Tiers 1, 2, and 3) to estimate emission data across Europe. Despite the availability of Earth Observation (EO) data and products from the Copernicus Programme current estimation methods still rarely integrate EO information to produce spatially explicit estimates. This paper reviews current methodologies for estimating ammonia in IIRs and in scientific literature, including advanced methods not yet implemented in official inventories but potentially capable of supporting more spatially explicit and process-oriented estimation. A Medium Effort Methodology (MEM) is identified among those reviewed as a representative methodological pathway for integrating EO information with Tier 3 approaches. Building on this, the paper explores the association between specific EO data and Copernicus products, and input variables required by MEM, identifying opportunities and barriers for environmental monitoring with potential relevance to sustainable agriculture. Full article

The commercialization of Km 0 products has emerged as a strategic approach to strengthening rural economies, promoting sustainability, and countering depopulation in European territories. This study examines the motivations and perceptions of three key stakeholder groups—farmers, restaurant businesses, and public officials—regarding rural permanence and the role of Km 0 commercialization. Based on original survey data collected in Spain (2024), the research adopts a comparative perspective to identify convergences and divergences across these actors. Results show that farmers perceive Km 0 as vital for the survival of family farms and the preservation of territorial identity, while restaurants view it as a competitive advantage to ensure freshness and authenticity in gastronomy. Public officials frame Km 0 as a governance tool for rural revitalization and demographic stabilization. Despite these different orientations, all groups converge on valuing quality of life, contact with nature, and sustainability. Structural constraints such as inadequate infrastructure, limited digital connectivity, and generational renewal remain significant barriers across contexts. Situating these findings within the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the agroecological transition framework, this article suggests that Km 0 commercialization holds potential as an instrument for sustainability, territorial resilience, and food sovereignty in contemporary rural Europe, while acknowledging that the exploratory nature of this study calls for caution in extrapolating these findings beyond the specific contexts examined. Full article

The primary objective of this study was to present and assess the effects of direct payments and other subsidies targeted at dairy farms under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) guidelines implemented in 2014–2023 on their financial performance and changes in equity. To narrow the focus on the research problem, the scope of the analysis was limited to dairy farms from the five EU countries with the highest milk production. To achieve this objective, the study employed economic measures and indicators used to evaluate the resources and outcomes of agricultural activity. The empirical material used in the analysis consisted of farm-level accounting data collected within the European Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The results indicate that direct payments and other subsidies had a very substantial impact on farm income in the analysed countries. The average share of direct payments in dairy farm income in 2014–2023 in the five analysed EU countries ranged from 19.7% in Italy to 88.4% in France. Without direct payments, the average dairy farm would have incurred financial losses from its activity during periods of unfavourable economic conditions on the milk market. The new model for distributing direct payments and other subsidies introduced in 2023, whose main modification compared with the previous system was a stronger alignment of direct payments with environmental objectives, did not result in substantial changes in either the level of payments or their impact on dairy farms’ financial performance. In 2023, the average payment per hectare of agricultural land in the analysed farms amounted to EUR 461.34, which was EUR 19.88 less than in 2022. Full article

The digital transformation of agriculture has generated vast heterogeneous datasets from sensors, machinery, and administrative systems; however, interoperability and data sovereignty remain critical challenges. This study presents an IDS-compliant Agricultural Data Space tailored to the Italian context, integrating regulatory frameworks (General Data Protection Regulation, Data Governance Act and Data Act) with the International Data Spaces (IDS) Reference Architecture Model. The study addresses key barriers to data sharing, including technical fragmentation, governance gaps, and economic incentives, by mapping Italian agricultural data flows onto the five-layer IDS model. Policy-based usage control is implemented through machine-enforceable Open Digital Rights Language policies, enabling farmer-centric data sovereignty. Three use cases, namely administrative Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) declarations, machine-generated data portability, and agri-food supply-chain traceability, demonstrate how structured and interoperable data exchange can reduce redundancy, mitigate vendor lock-in, and support sustainable agri-food systems. The findings highlight the feasibility of IDS-driven solutions in real-world agricultural ecosystems, emphasizing the need for sector-specific policy templates and scalable governance mechanisms. This work contributes to the development of the Common European Agricultural Data Space by bridging institutional, technical, and regulatory gaps. Full article

This study investigates consumer knowledge, perceptions, and purchasing behaviors regarding products with geographical indications and certifications in the Campania region. Traditional Agri-Food Product (PAT) is the regional label used in Italy to identify traditional products whose distribution is so limited that they do not qualify for PDO or PGI designation. In this view, this research examines the diffusion of such products, their economic and sustainability attributes, and alignment with modern objectives, including environmental impact reduction, rural development, and the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027. Using a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of 706 respondents, the study combines descriptive statistics and econometric analysis, trying to identify key factors influencing Willingness to Pay (WTP) for certified products and knowledge of certifications. Findings reveal that education, knowledge of certifications, and lifestyle factors positively affect WTP, highlighting opportunities for targeted marketing and awareness campaigns, also emphasizing critical issues in view of new trade scenarios (e.g., Mercosur agreement) and climate change. Full article

The European Union aims to achieve the target of 25% of land under organic farming by 2030. Italy reached the share of 18.7% in 2022, although significant regional differences persist. This study analyzes farms’ conversion response in the Lazio region (Italy) using a dynamic version of the AGRITALIM agro-economic supply model on a sample of 578 FADN farms. Addressing the limitations of static modeling frameworks that assume full conversion, this study aims to simulate individual farm conversion choices over time, by accounting for conversion and maintenance phases costs and price premiums. This framework tests the hypotheses that a dynamic modeling approach can highlight nuanced responses and that increases in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments are able to increase organic conversion rates. Results show limited effects of increased economic support: the 2023–2027 CAP reform, characterized by higher support, leads to a 5.1% increase in the area under organic farming, while a 40% increase in financial support generates an expansion of 12%. Farm responses are highly heterogeneous: rural provinces, larger and arable farms are more responsive, while smaller farms and livestock are less likely to convert. These findings highlight the need for integrated policy strategies combining financial support, reduced costs, technical assistance, and improved market access. The methodological approach adopted in this study provides a useful tool for supporting the design of targeted and effective policy interventions. Full article

This article analyses budgetary expenditures on agriculture and rural development in Poland in 2004–2025, i.e., after Poland’s accession to the European Union (EU). The study examines the size, real dynamics, and structure of total agricultural budget expenditures, including both national budgetary funds and EU funds allocated through the instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The analysis assesses the importance of EU budget funds for the level and structure of public expenditures on agriculture and rural development in Poland and attempts to determine the relationship between national and EU funds. The study employed time series analysis, structural analysis, and an analysis of the interdependence of variables (i.e., correlation and multiple regression). It was found that during the 22 years of EU membership, budgetary expenditures on agriculture, agricultural markets, and rural development in Poland were strongly determined by the volume of European funds, which accounted for the sharp increase in Poland’s agricultural budget compared with the pre-accession period. Compared with 2003 levels, expenditure rose by an average of 162% in nominal terms and 129% in real terms. EU funds also acted as a stabilising factor for the size of this budget throughout the analysed period. The proportion of European funds in Poland’s agricultural budget (PAB) rose sharply in the early years of Poland’s EU membership (2004–2011), increasing from 20.1% to 48.7%. However, it remained relatively stable in subsequent years, averaging 47.8%. Nevertheless, the appreciation of the Polish zloty against the euro caused the real value of these expenditures to decline, a trend that became apparent from 2017 onwards. This resulted in the need to increase expenditures from the national budget and led to national funds assuming a greater share of the financial burden of supporting agriculture. Between 2017 and 2025, the share of EU funds in the PAB fell from 43% to 33.1% (averaging 40.3%). The structure of expenditures within the CAP evolved over time as a result of changes in CAP priorities, although farmers’ income support as well as assistance for the modernization and improvement of the competitiveness of Polish agriculture remained key objectives. Full article

This study evaluates the productive efficiency in the agrifood sector of 21 rural Bulgarian districts as a proxy for territorial competitiveness. Output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was performed using district-level data from 2022 to 2024. The analysis incorporates five inputs related to labor, land, and capital and three economic outputs from agriculture and food processing. Results indicate substantial variation in efficiency among rural districts. Twelve districts form the efficiency frontier, with effective resource use and diverse structures; nine are inefficient due to scale or organizational/technological constraints. Bootstrap bias correction revealed standard DEA underestimates efficiency gaps. Frontier districts include large plains, mountainous regions and smaller, specialized systems, indicating diverse paths to competitiveness. A composite Territorial Competitiveness Index (TCI) showed frontier status does not guarantee efficiency, often due to underused manufacturing capital. Cluster analysis identified four performance groups needing different policy support, ranging from near-frontier territories that need knowledge transfer to deeply underperforming districts that require restructuring. No geographic clustering of efficiency was found, pointing to structural and institutional, rather than geographic, drivers. These results highlight the need for territorially tailored rural policies within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and offer an empirical basis for diagnosing regional agrifood efficiency gaps. Full article

This paper examines how rural development support was associated with changes in Lithuania’s agri-food sector between 2000 and 2025 across successive Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) programming periods. Integrating complementary theoretical perspectives, the study assesses whether policy interventions were linked to structural transformation, market upgrading, partial innovation deepening, and sustainability-oriented change, or whether they primarily reinforced existing agri-food development paths. Methodologically, the research employs a quantitative, longitudinal, descriptive–analytical design, combining time-series analysis with comparative policy-cycle analysis. By tracing both incremental adjustments and more pronounced structural shifts over the 2000–2025 period, the paper provides an evidence-based assessment of how rural development support aligned with sectoral change. The findings suggest that the observed trajectory is most consistent with modernization, consolidation, and market upgrading, while innovation-led transformation appears more uneven and concentrated in downstream processing than in primary agriculture. The results contribute to debates on the calibration of rural development instruments and offer implications for future policy design in small open economies undergoing agri-food restructuring. Full article

Madeira’s agricultural sector is characterised by pronounced structural heterogeneity, land fragmentation, and increasing socio-economic and environmental pressures. However, comprehensive typological and spatial analyses remain limited, particularly in small island contexts. This study addresses this gap by providing a typological and spatial analysis of the agrarian structure in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal, using 2019 Agricultural Census data. An integrated framework combining Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) clustering, and Random Forest validation—representing a novel approach in agrarian typology studies—is employed to identify three agricultural models: Intensive Subtropical Agriculture (24.1% of parishes), characterised by small holdings and high labour intensity; Extensive Traditional Agriculture (64.8%), featuring moderate farm size and diversified cropping; and Pasture-based Agriculture (11.1%), dominated by larger farms and low labour input. The results confirm significant structural trade-offs, including a strong inverse relationship between farm size and labour intensity (r = −0.653) and a negative correlation between specialisation and crop diversity (r = −0.673). Spatially, the models exhibit clear territorial differentiation, with subtropical systems concentrated in southern coastal areas and traditional systems prevailing in northern and interior regions. These findings support the hypothesis of a hybrid agrarian transition. Despite relying on cross-sectional data, the results provide a robust basis for targeted and place-based policy design within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) framework. Full article

Agriculture faces climate change, price volatility, and policy uncertainty. Because traditional agricultural insurance instruments often prove insufficient to address these risks, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has introduced additional risk-management instruments such as mutual funds. The paper applies the Business Model Stress Testing framework to assess the robustness and adaptability of a mutual fund business model. The sustainability of the mutual model depends on building trust, enabling legislation, ensuring transparent governance, diversifying funding sources, agri-tech and alignment with support measures are the most critical factors. Within the current institutional framework, the lack of cooperative tradition and management capacities, the application of mutuals is hardly feasible for Croatia. Instead of a collective risk-sharing instruments approach, the paper suggests supporting the cooperation of stakeholders from different risk layers in harnessing digital technology and AI in developing enhanced agricultural risk management. Even though such an approach could be fuzzy too, it could bring impact faster and even contribute to the relevancy of the mutual model. The paper contributes to the literature on sustainable business model innovation in agriculture that enhances farm resilience in high-risk environments. This exercise might have policy implications for transition economies seeking to operationalize innovative tools in climate risk management and rural development. Full article

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as one of the most prominent European Union policies, has increased concerns about the environmental sustainability of farms, particularly since its major reform in 1992. The changes implemented since this reform have intended to promote more integrated rural development, with deeper interrelationships between the agricultural sector and other rural activities, including agritourism, from the perspective of diversification of the activities that can be developed on farms and in rural areas. The idea of this strategy is to bring more income for farmers by changing the policy measures and enhancing a more sustainable agricultural and rural development. Nonetheless, the interrelationships between the diversification of activities in the agricultural sector and the characteristics of the farms have not yet been fully explored. In this context, this research aims to bring more insight into how agritourism revenues can be predicted by the farm characteristics in the European Union (UE) agricultural regions, considering data from FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network), for 2023, using machine learning algorithms (following IBM SPSS Modeler Version 18.4 procedures). The results obtained show that agritourism output is higher in EU countries with larger farms (Slovakia and Czechia) and that are more economically dynamic (Netherlands and Denmark). Slovenia, Austria, Italy, and Finland are countries in which farms have a higher part of agritourism revenues in the total output. There is space to better explore agritourism potentialities and to improve the availability of data. When the total crop output increases by 1%, agritourism revenue grows by 0.719%. Full article

Agriculture in Bulgaria faces increasing pressure to balance profitability with environmental sustainability under the evolving framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the European Green Deal. This study analyses the relationship between sustainability-oriented investment support, production cost structure, and farm profitability using farm-level data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The analysis integrates investment-related subsidies, input intensity, productivity indicators, and structural characteristics into an econometric framework to examine their associations with economic performance. Results show that environmental payments, when aligned with efficient management, enhance profitability, whereas conventional investment and rural development support display limited or delayed effects. Higher crop protection expenditure is associated with lower profitability, suggesting cost inefficiencies in chemically intensive production systems. In contrast, fertiliser expenditure shows no significant association, while energy-related spending exhibits a positive but statistically insignificant relationship, likely reflecting mechanisation and technological modernisation effects. Structural factors, particularly farm size and land productivity, remain key determinants of profitability for balancing economic and environmental goals. Overall, the findings suggest that sustainable profitability in Bulgarian agriculture is achievable but unevenly distributed, shaped by structural conditions, managerial capacity, and the design of support instruments. The study offers empirical evidence for aligning sustainable investment incentives with farm-level competitiveness and supports the transition toward integrated economic-environmental monitoring within the forthcoming Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). Full article