Tag: farm structure

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Understanding the structure of EU agriculture

Agricultural structure data represent the crown jewels of agricultural policymaking. For researchers and policymakers alike, the Farm Structure Survey and Agricultural Census are a rich and detailed source for understanding how Europe’s farms operate and evolve. They provide indispensable insights into the dynamics of land use, labour, and production systems, informing strategies for food security, generational renewal, environmental stewardship, and rural development.

In this post, I look at how agricultural structure data are used to track changes in the structure of agricultural holdings over time. I focus in particular on the statistical coverage of the data, the population of holdings that are included. Choosing different cut-off points for the population of holdings represented by the data can give us very different pictures of the agricultural sector.

For example, in a statistical brief summarising the results of the 2020 Agricultural Census, Eurostat informs us that there were 9.1 million agricultural holdings in the EU, of which 2.9 million holdings (the equivalent of 31.8 %) were located in Romania. However,… Read the rest

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Tracking structural change in EU agriculture

Let me welcome you to the first blog post on capreform.eu since I last posted in July. The long absence was due to two reasons. First, the blog was hacked which prevented me from accessing the back end where I construct the posts. And second, a series of commitments over the summer and autumn meant that I did not have the time (or skills) to work out how to regain access to the blog. Fortunately, the blog posts themselves remained available for those who wanted to read them.

I have now found a way around the block. The site will need a bit more work to fully stabilise it and secure it against future hacking attempts but at least I am able to post again. And for this first post after the enforced break I thought to look at what the recent publication of the Agricultural Census 2020 results on the Eurostat website can tell us about the changing structure of EU agriculture.… Read the rest

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Why farm numbers must continue to fall

Commissioner-designate Wojciechowski highlighted what he called the “shocking information” on the decline in the number of European farms in his opening statement during his hearing in front of the AGRI Committee in the European Parliament earlier this week.

I presented the shocking information – shocking at least for some audiences – that during one decade, from 2005 to 2015, we lost four million farms in the European Union. The number of farms was almost 15 million, and after a decade there were fewer than 11 million farms. If we lose four million per decade, it is 400 000 per year. More than 30 000 per month. More than 1 000 per day. Our debate is scheduled to last three hours, which means that during this debate more than 100 European farmers will probably lose their farm and their job. For many of them it will be a tragic, shocking situation because it is not so easy to be a farmer today and then tomorrow to do something different – to be a taxi driver, for example.

… Read the rest
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The CAP and agricultural employment

Phil Hogan, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, has promised a Communication on modernising and simplifying the CAP before the end of 2017. One of the six broad objectives for the CAP set out in the Commission’s inception impact assessment is to “encourage a vibrant rural economy by fostering growth and jobs in rural areas and encouraging generational renewal”.
This builds on one of the three objectives for Pillar 2 rural development spending in the 2014-2020 period which is “achieving a balanced territorial development of rural economies and communities including the creation and maintenance of employment” (Art. 4, Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013).
It also follows on Commission President Juncker’s mission letter to the incoming Commissioner in October 2014 which highlighted the importance of the Commission’s jobs, growth and investment agenda. Hogan was asked to ensure “that rural development spending is well integrated into jobs- and growth-generating investment strategies at national and regional level”, to implement the recently agreed CAP reform “so as to maximise its contribution to our jobs and growth agenda”, and to contribute to the 2016 review of the Multiannual Financial Framework “by identifying ways of further increasing the focus of the CAP on jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness”.… Read the rest

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The viability of EU farms

Economic sustainability is usually taken to be one of the three legs of the sustainability concept (the others being environmental and social sustainability – hence the phrase ‘people, planet, profit’). But what do we know about the economic sustainability of EU farming and how to measure it? A recent paper by researchers (Cathal O’Donoghue, Simon Devisme, Mary Ryan, Ricky Conneely, Patrick Gillespie and Hans Vrolijk) participating in the FLINT project have now used a pilot dataset collected at farm level in 8 Member States to focus attention on this issue.
The FLINT (Farm Level Indicators for New Topics) research project investigates the feasibility of providing policy-makers and the agro-food industry with farm-level indicators on sustainability and other relevant new issues. The project established a pilot network of around 1100 farms already participating in the FADN network in nine Member States to investigate the feasibility of collecting these indicators. Having demonstrated the feasibility of collecting a set of relevant indicators on these pilot farms, the project is recommending that the FADN sample should be reduced from 85.000 to 75.000 farms to have capacity for sustainability data on 15.000 farms.… Read the rest

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Does farm size matter?

On October 20th next I will take part in a workshop organised by DG AGRI at the Milan EXPO on the subject “Structural realities in EU agriculture: Does farm size matter?” The aim of the workshop is to discuss the challenges and opportunities brought about by the structural change of the EU agricultural sector for a) the up- and downstream industries, b) EU rural areas and c) the sustainability of agricultural production in Europe.
The debate on farm size
There is a long history in Europe of interest in the structure of agricultural holdings. Many European countries have had land legislation in place with the objective of maximising the number of farm holdings or limiting the maximum farm size. In recent decades, many of these restrictions have been removed, although rules limiting foreign investment in land still exist in a number of countries, particularly in the new member states. Nonetheless, the issue of farm size remains a controversial and emotional issue, as seen in the opposition to so-called ‘mega-dairies’ in a number of member states, and the introduction of the ‘redistributive payment’ option in Pillar 1 of the CAP permitting member states to make higher payments per hectare to smaller farms.… Read the rest

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The greying of Europe’s farmers

Problems in the generational transfer of farms have been a focus of EU agricultural structures policy since the 1990s and in individual member states for an even longer period. Europe’s farmers are getting older, and the shortage of ‘new blood’ entering the industry is frequently seen as a problem requiring a policy response to correct.

The ageing of the agricultural population results from a combination of two things: a reduced rate of entry by new young recruits, and a reduced rate of retirement or exit by older farmers. This is taking place in the context of a long term reduction in the agricultural labour force in EU countries.

There is no doubt that the average age of farmers is increasing steadily. Unfortunately, the age of farm holder tabulations from the 2010 Agricultural Census have not yet been released by Eurostat, so the latest data we have are still from 2007. In 2007, 31% of holders of agricultural holdings in the EU-15 were 65 or older (28% in 1997 and 24% in 1990).… Read the rest

Posted on

The greying of Europe's farmers

Problems in the generational transfer of farms have been a focus of EU agricultural structures policy since the 1990s and in individual member states for an even longer period. Europe’s farmers are getting older, and the shortage of ‘new blood’ entering the industry is frequently seen as a problem requiring a policy response to correct.
The ageing of the agricultural population results from a combination of two things: a reduced rate of entry by new young recruits, and a reduced rate of retirement or exit by older farmers. This is taking place in the context of a long term reduction in the agricultural labour force in EU countries.
There is no doubt that the average age of farmers is increasing steadily. Unfortunately, the age of farm holder tabulations from the 2010 Agricultural Census have not yet been released by Eurostat, so the latest data we have are still from 2007. In 2007, 31% of holders of agricultural holdings in the EU-15 were 65 or older (28% in 1997 and 24% in 1990).… Read the rest