Category: News

Do you want to know how the CAP post 2020 should be to enhance the resilience of EU farming systems? Have a look at the new SURE-Farm policy brief .

The CAP post 2020 needs to change significantly to better support the different mixes of three resilience capacities of the different farming systems in Europe: Robustness, adaptability and transformability.

• Support robustness by enhancing the capacity to anticipate shocks and stresses, to cope and to respond.
• Support adaptability by providing direction, in particular through the remuneration of public goods, by increasing flexibility and variability through reducing red tape, and by closing the gap between reflection/innovation and practice.
• Support transformability by the formulation of a coordinated long-term vision, by support for deep learning, and by reflexive modes of governing that influence people’s assumptions about the future, their self-perceptions and identities.

Click here and read the policy brief

Have a look at the GIF and find the key recommendations for the CAP post 2020

A new policy brief is issued! Find below a set of  policy options for resilience-enhancing farm demographics.

European agriculture as well as the wider economy face substantial demographic changes in the upcoming decades.  The SURE-Farm project seeks to better understand the sustainability and resilience of European farming systems, including the challenges related to farm demographics and what this means for structural change. This policy brief aims to tie the findings of SURE-Farm on farm demographics with policy options which may enable resilient farm structures.

The policy briefs highlights four  paths for policy makers to explore contextually:

1. Supporting the on-going agricultural education
2. Contributing to the attractiveness of rural areas
3. Reforming policies for alternative business models
4. Desinging clear and consistent policies

Click here and read the policy brief

Have a look at the GIF and find the key messages for resilience-enhancing farm demographics

Find here the new SURE-Farm report on the impact of the Young Farmers Payment on structural change !

The European Union agricultural sector has experienced significant structural changes over the last decades, mostly consisting of a decline in the number of farms, farm size growth, and a conversion towards intensive systems.

Find in this report the impact of the Young Farmer Payment (YFP) on the structural change of two EU regions farming systems, namely the Altmark region in Germany and the Flanders region in Belgium. The paper adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods with stakeholders.

Overall, it is found that the YFP has almost no impact on structural change of the agricultural sector in the two regions. Stakeholders suggest that the financial resources for the YFP could be more usefully employed for alternative measures such as agricultural education and training or subsidies coupled to investments.

Click here to read the full report

Authors: 

Mauro Vigani and Julie Urquhart, Christine Pitson, Franziska Appel, Jo Bijttebier, Isabeau Coopmans, Erwin Wauters

Contact:

Mauro Vigani: mvigani@glos.ac.uk

A new deliverable is now available. This report assesses the likely responses to future challenges under future scenarios with the aim at improving the sustainability and resilience of of the EU farming systems. The future resilience in 11 case studies across the EU is addressed by using a soft coupling of different qualitative and quantitative approaches. The report showed complementarity between different methods and, above all, between quantitative and qualitative approaches. Qualitative approaches are needed for interaction with stakeholders, understand perceptions of stakeholders, consider available knowledge on all aspects of the farming system, including social dimensions, and perform a good basis for developing and parameterizing quantitative models. Quantitative methods allow quantifying the consequences of mental models, operationalizing the impact of stresses and strategies to tackle them and help to unveil unintended consequences, but are limited in their reach. Both are needed to assess resilience of farming systems and suggest strategies for improvement and to help stakeholders to wider their views regarding potential challenges and ways to tackle them.

Click here to read the full report.

You can also read the country reports:

• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• The Netherlands
• Poland
• Romania
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom

Contact authors:

Francesco Accatino: francesco.accatino@inrae.fr

Have a look at the new Business Brief on shifting the focus from “more” to “more successful” generational renewal!

One important longer-term building-block of a farming system’s resilience is generational renewal. Vice versa, farming systems are only attractive for the younger generation to enter if they offer long-term prospects.

SURE-Farm researchers from IAMO and ILVO provides key ideas to raise awareness among farmers and stakeholders of opportunities and challenges related to the various aspects of generational renewal.

Click below and read the key recommendations:

Business brief on generational renewal

Infographic on generational renewal

The business brief is available in eleven European languages. Please, click here and find yours!

Contact:

• Christine Pitson: Pitson@iamo.de
• Franziska Appel: appel@iamo.de
• Alfons Balmann:balmann@iamo.de
• Isabeau Coopmans:Isabeau.Coopmans@ilvo.vlaanderen.be
• Erwin Wauters: Erwin.Wauters@ilvo.vlaanderen.be

Key steps and dynamics of family farm succession in marginal extensive livestock farming

Succession trends in agriculture have been downward in many European regions, especially in the less favoured and mountainous areas of southern Europe. This article aims at understanding family farm succession dynamics in extensive livestock farming of two marginal areas in Spain. We approached the issue applying a qualitative methodology based on inductive content analysis of open interviews with 28 farmers and relatives. The evidence shows that family farm succession is a long-term and multidimensional process during which successors pass through three stages: potential succession, willingness to succeed and effective succession. The factors determining succession can be classed into four dimensions that affect the succession stages differently. Individual and familial dimensions are found to include the most influential factors shaping the potential successor, whereas the influence of familial factors drops in favour of the individual dimension at the willingness stage. The contextual and institutional dimensions mainly influence the willingness and effective succession stages. The scope of policies should be broadened beyond effective succession by enhancing the intention of willing successors to take over the business.

Daniele Bertolozzi-Caredio, Isabel Bardaji, Isabeau Coopmans, Barbara Soriano, Alberto Garrido (2020). Key steps and dynamics of family farm succession in marginal extensive livestock farming, Journal of Rural Studies, 76, 131-141. ISSN 0743-0167.

Click here to read the article

In this new report you can find policy recommendations for strengthening the Common Agricultural Policy’s resilience impacts. SURE-Farm researcher from Wageningen University & Research, KU Leuven and Humboldt University  find various promising options for the CAP, including national implementations, to maximise its contribution to greater resilience of EU farming systems.

These options serve as input for ongoing political debates on the reform of the CAP post-2020, the development of the proposed National Strategic Plans that spell out national priorities and implementation choices, as well as the European Commission’s “From Farm to Fork Strategy”, which aims to foster a circular food system, as part of the European Green Deal.

Have a look at the report:

D4.5 Policy recommendations for strengthening the Common Agricultural Policy’s resilience impacts

Co-authors:

Jeroen CANDEL, Peter FEINDT, Katrien TERMEER, Erik MATHIJS and Yannick BUITENHUIS

Corresponding autor: Jeroen CANDEL (jeroen.candel@wur.nl )

Have a look at the new Policy Brief on future farm demographics and structural change in selected regions of the European Union.

Farm demographics is as an important driver of structural change in European agriculture. SURE-Farm researchers from IAMO (https://www.iamo.de/) finds that many potential agricultural entrants- farm successors as well as hired workers- are deterred by what they view as a poor quality of life that farming offers.

Policy objectives should address the social image of farming as well as revitalize rural areas. Increasingly critical is the demand for skilled hired labour. However, policies dealing with farm demographic change ignore these needs and focus almost exclusively on farm succession.

Click here to read more policy recommendations:

Policy brief on future farm demographics and structural change in selected regions of the EU

Infographic on future farm demographics

In this new report you can find the main results of the effects farm succession have on farm structural change, specifically the presence of a successor. It does so using a mixed methods approach: 1) Conducting focus groups to understand the demographic change in the case study regions and 2) Simulating scenarios in each region by using the agent-based model the Agricultural Policy Simulator (AgriPoliS).

Have a look at the report:

D3.5 Report on future farm demographics and structural change in selected regions of the EU

The report is led by IAMO (https://www.iamo.de/en/)

Co-authors:

Christine PITSON , Franziska APPEL, Florian  HEINRICH, Jo BIJTTEBIER

Corresponding autor: Christine PITSON, pitson@iamo.de

This deliverable seeks three objectives: 1) Providing an outlook of the risk management strategies in the EU farming systems; 2) Defining the ways to improve risk management strategies; and 3) Assessing the ways through which risk management contributes to resilience.

To reach this end, a multi-stakeholder approach is followed considering two different regional scales: i) at local level to involve stakeholders with experience and knowledge at farming system level; for that purpose focus groups are held in 11case study (CS) regions across Europe; and ii) at European level to engage the participation of the stakeholders with experience and knowledge at European level; a dedicated virtual co-creation platform is developed to enable the on-line participation of EU stakeholders across Europe.

Click here to read the full report: D2.6 Report on state and outlook for Risk Management in EU agriculture

The report has been led by CEIGRAM- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM (www.upm.es)

Authors: Bárbara SORIANO, Isabel BARDAJÍ, Daniele BERTOLOZZI, Carolina SAN MARTÍN, Alisa SPIEGEL, Thomas SLIJPER, Miranda MEUWISSEN, Jens ROMMEL, Helena HANSSON, Simone SEVERINI, Federico ANTONIOLI, Robert BERRY, Amr KAHFAGY, Julie URQUHART, Hristina HARIZANOVA–BARTOS, Zornitsa STOYANOVA, Isabeau COOPMANS, Erwin WAUTERS, Jo BIJTTEBIER, Delphine NEUMEISTER, Francesco ACCATINO, Corentin PINSARD, Monica TUDOR, Camelia GAVRILESCU, Lucian LUCA, Anca-Marina IZVORANU, Katarzyna ZAWALIŃSKA, Blazej JENDRZEJEWSKI, Piotr GRADZIUK, Katarzyna BAŃKOWSKA, Vitaliy KRUPIN, Franziska OLLENDORF, Franziska APPEL, Alberto GARRIDO.

Correponding author: Bárbara SORIANO (barbara.soriano@upm.es)