The Food Security Thematic Programme (FSTP) is a programme of the European Union (EU) that aims ―to improve food security in favour of the poorest and the most vulnerable, and contribute to achieving the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), through a set of actions which ensure overall coherence, complementarity and...

Describes trends in direct selling by farmers in Italy by region, product and place of sale. Proposes a model of variables that affect the probability of a farmer adopting direct sales: farmer (gender, age, off-farm income); farm (farm type, work units, standard gross margin) and location (region, altimetry, less favoured...

Romania is a country of peasants, with a long deep history in peasant agriculture, which effects everything in the country, including its art, culture, and the way Romanians think. This has survived despite the best efforts of past empires and communists to destroy it. Today peasant culture remains the bedrock...

Bees are the most important pollinators in Europe. We studied bee assemblages on 7 pairs of extensively and intensively grazed sites in three lowland grassland types in Hungary. No chemicals were applied on the grasslands. The bees were collected using sweep net surveys and 1 m wide transect surveys in...

Position and Perspectives of Small Farms with Respect to the Structure Development of Subsequent Vertical Link Blažková, I., Sadílek, T. (2009). Proceedings of 111th Seminar, June 26-27, 2009, Canterbury, UK The article describes the position and perspectives of small farms’ production sales with respect to the structure development of subsequent vertical...

Permanent pastures are therein defined as utilized agricultural area used permanently for 5 or more years through cultivation (sowing) of grass fodder crops or through natural regeneration and is not included in the farm crop rotation. This area can be used for either grazing or mowing. All grass species that...

Estonia falls into the Nemoral and Boreal biogeographical zones – regions naturally dominated by coniferous forests, with extensive mires. Farmers in at least certain parts in Estonia, as in other countries in these zones, traditionally made use of all the possible forage resources available to them to tide their animals...

Proposing a coherent and unified definition of permanent pastures in France is not easy in the detail neither from technical nor from administrative point of view. Starting from usual and specialised dictionaries, the definition of a “pasture” shows a certain blur between a general definition in which a pasture is...

The cross-compliance booklet for Northern Ireland states “Permanent pasture is defined as permanent grassland which is over five years old which has been declared on the Area Aid application in 2003. Land which has been ploughed and reseeded within the same year may be defined as permanent pasture”.

Permanent pastures (PP) of various types dominate the Scottish agricultural landscape. Recent census-based statistics show that permanent pastures in the widest sense account for 82% of Scotland’s farmland, making up an estimated 75% of all land claimed in IACS.

Sweden has a tradition of managing semi-natural pastures with a relatively high amount of trees and bushes. Some of the typical habitats also have low fodder value, but it is often not correlated with tree density. These pastures are mainly alvar grazing (habitat type 6280, Nordic alvar and Pre-Cambrian calcareous...

Agroecology involves various approaches to solve actual challenges of agricultural production. Though agroecology initially dealt primarily with crop production and protection aspects, in recent decades new dimensions such as environmental, social, economic, ethical and development issues are becoming relevant. Today, the term ‘agroecology’ means either a scientific discipline, agricultural practice,...

This paper provides a summary of the results of an analytical review of EU Member States support for mountain areas under EAFRD (2007-2013). The analysis was conducted by the ENRD Contact Point. The main purpose of the review was to provide an overview of the different RD support measures available...

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was the first policy to specifically address mountain regions at European level, through Directive 75/268/EEC on mountain and hill-farming in less favoured areas (LFAs). Since 1975, the CAP instruments promoting the sustainable development of mountain agriculture and the well-being of mountain rural areas have significantly...

Similarly to other Northern countries, Italy has witnessed a growth in recent years of forms of direct sale of agri-food products. These so-called short supply chains often open new opportunities for the development and conservation of rural areas which are not merely economic in nature. The case study described here...

SEEAG's Mission is to educate children about the farm sources of their food from  field-to-table while connecting them to the farmland in their own backyard.

Wolves have been coming back for several years in the southern French Alps. In two valleys of the Mercantour national park, they have been present for 15 years. Sheep farmers have to adapt their farming systems to this presence. We carried out surveys among the sheep farmers i) to describe...

Farming in the area of Maramureş has created a land of impressive scenery and rich cultural heritage. The unique patchwork of forests, orchards, wetlands and grasslands forms the second largest protected area in Romania. This is a semi-natural landscape, the result of a long tradition of traditional farming and shepherding,...

Small producers, who sell their own products from their own farms, have been making and selling their products for many generations. They believe in the health of their products. But in certain cases, production and storage conditions can lead to serious food poisoning, even though the producer/seller who eats the...

This report is produced as part of collaboration between the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism (EFNCP) and WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme (WWFDCP). Both organisations recognise the importance of certain farming systems for nature conservation. Between 2006 and 2008 a project was executed aiming at finding out at a local...