The growing number of local agriculture initiatives and their diversity reflects the population's need to reconnect with basic values and their raising concern about sustainability. Alternative forms of (sub-) urban agriculture, such as direct selling, basket delivery services and community-supported agriculture (CSA) are developing. Are these initiatives specific, regarding “resilience”...

Making agriculture greener, more efficient and fairer, this is the goal of the new CAP. It will be achieved by encouraging better use of natural resources to tackle climate change, safeguard biodiversity and by doubling funding for research, innovation and knowledge-sharing. From 2015 all Member States will have to use...

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

Agriculture affects the environment in many different ways. Both in positive ways, farming systems generating semi-natural habitats with high levels of biodiversity and negative ways, e.g. farming systems that cause pollution, eutrophication and deterioration of habitats. In addition afforestation of agricultural lands can generate opportunities to create additional farm income...

Important possibility for small family farmers is protection of their speciffic, indigenous agricultural products so they can obtain better recognition and market position. On this web page potential beneficiaries can find all relevant information about protection and labeling of their products.  

The CAP aims to address (regulate, support) the totality of EU agricultural activity and agricultural land. Agricultural land must fall into one of only three categories named by the policy, i.e. permanent crops; arable and permanent pasture (permanent grassland in the definition proposed in the reformed CAP Regulations, see Section...

The video outlines three case studies of farmers utilizing agroecological practices in their farming systems. It focuses on complex adaptive rice systems in the Easter part of the island of Java, Indonesia; on a large-scale farm in the Netherlands applying sustainable soil management practices; and on social aspects of agroecology...

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

Le présent document porte sur le compostage à la ferme

When focussing on indicators used in different agri-environmental indicator frameworks we can conclude that there is no EU wide indicator for ecologically valuable grassland available. However, there are several indicators that do have a strong link as they include (among others) EVG areas or are based on species monitoring data...

The study aims to gain more knowledge of the environmental effects of farmland afforestation in order to better understand the factors behind successful afforestation in rural development programmes, and the pitfalls to avoid. Minor references are made to related measures such as afforestation of non-agricultural land and forestry measures for...

In the world, more than 80 per cent of farms are family farms – in total more than 500 million economic and social entities. In Europe 25 million people, 172 million hectares of agricultural land and 12 million farms are involved in EU agricultural production. A vast majority of these...

This note discusses the definitions, challenges and future prospects of family farming in the EU. Some challenges, such as market volatility and climate change, are general for all EU farm structures, but some are specific to family farmers: their smallness, lack of power within the food chain, and intergenerational farm succession. However, family farming...

Small farms have always been a cornerstone of agriculture in the EU. They play a significant role in supporting rural employment, contributing to territorial development. They are important for production, particularly in the form of local specialist products and provide important social, cultural and environmental services.  The last enlargements in 2004...

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the EU’s oldest policies, and is a cornerstone of European cooperation. After more than a decade of post-World War II food shortages and hunger, CAP was originally intended to increase agricultural production, ensure food security, protect farmers’ quality of life...

Smallholder and family farming has come to dominate agriculture in the lower and middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia as a result of the land reforms implemented in the 1990s. Food security in the region is under threat as many of the small farm units are presently not economically...

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the six founding countries of the European Union implemented a common agricultural policy (CAP) with a view to increasing productivity, ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilising markets, guaranteeing food supply and ensuring reasonable prices for consumers....

Small farms are an important rural reality in Europe. With an average area of 14 hectares, small holdings remain the ruling type of farms in the EU27. They represent richness by its multifonctionality” for the farming economy and the whole society in terms of territories occupation, maintaining biodiversity maintaining, landscapes,...

The contribution of family farms and in particular smallholder farms to food and nutrition security (FNS) has been gaining global attention, both in Europe and in the context of less developed countries. While small farms, as well as other small and micro-sized food businesses, have an important role to play...