The European Commission has proposed to cut the budget of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy by approximately 5%, but has prioritised the direct payments pillar in order to ensure farmers’ income and leave smallholders unaffected.
Public policies should not embrace risk management tools that cement the current ecological and economically unsustainable agri-food system, Greenpeace's food and agriculture director Marco Contiero told EURACTIV.com.
European farmers should invest in post-2020 agriculture as it will be less bureaucratic, more focused on “technology breakthroughs” and will improve their standard of living, EU Commissioner Phil Hogan told EURACTIV.com.
The EU found new niche markets to balance the losses of the Russian embargo but this has not translated into increased income for farmers, Pekka Pesonen told EURACTIV.com.
Seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, fuel, feed, irrigation equipment, water and power: all have an impact on farmer's income. EURACTIV’s partner EFEAgro spoke to sector experts about these farming essentials.
Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy has to satisfy multiple interests and now resembles a giant jigsaw puzzle further complicated with each successive reform. EURACTIV's Spanish partner EFEAgro reports.
SPECIAL REPORT / The farmers' protests that paralysed Brussels on 7 September, and hit Europe over the summer, are the result of agriculture prices volatility, which experts say "is here to stay". EURACTIV Italy reports.
After an aborted first attempt last week, the European Commission lifted the veil yesterday (2 February) on plans to secure access to essential raw materials for European companies. At the request of France, the updated draft now includes measures to improve the transparency of financial and commodity markets.
France said on Thursday its proposals for tighter controls on commodity trading were being well received in many G20 countries, and it issued a joint statement with Brazil on measures to curb food price volatility.
With volatility in agriculture set to increase, EU policy should focus on empowering farmers to take their own risk management decisions and have access to a range of instruments and strategies – with more direct interventions as a last resort, writes Claire Schaffnit-Chatterjee, a senior analyst at Deutsche Bank (DB) Research.
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