The Statistics in Focus are part of a series of country-specific publications on the results of the Farm Structure Survey (FSS) in years 2007, 2005 and 2003. They provide brief but comprehensive insight into the farm structure in Czech Republic. Farm structure in Czech Republic – 2010 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Agricultural_census_in_the_Czech_Republic Farm structure in Czech Republic...

The Austrian National Rural Network service unit “Netzwerk Land” has invited 1.400 stakeholders in rural development to answer three questions about the future orientation of the rural development policy. Additionally, these questions were posed on the front page of the network’s webpage. The RD monitoring committee held further discussions and...

Agriculture is a strategic sector of the economy and has deep traditions in Bulgaria. In 2009 the gross value added generated by the sector of agriculture was estimated at BGN 1,506 million and farming jobs totaled nearly 90,000, excluding the employment in food industry and other sectors of light industry....

The CNRN in cooperation with the Managing Authority of the Rural Development Program (RDP) 2007-2013, announced the initiation of Public Dialogue to discuss the future of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that will follow the year 2013. As a first step, agricultural groups and authorities as well as members of the...

In the light of the future challenges for agriculture and rural areas, what should be the objectives of the rural development policy after 2013? - To reach comparable conditions of all EU farmers starting with equalizing the level of direct payments without transfer period and level of national payments. Also taken...

The Danish Network Unit for Rural Development opened, with a press release from the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries on the 10th of May 2010, a public debate in Denmark on the European Rural Development Policy after 2013. The deadline for submission of contributions to the debate was the...

The Estonian Ministry of Agriculture (Managing Authority) started discussions on the CAP future with economic and social partners in 2009. Discussions have been organized in cooperation with Estonian Rural Network Unit. The representative organizations participating in the ERDP 2007–2013 Monitoring Committee, members of the Rural Network Cooperation Chamber and Leader...

The members of the monitoring committee of the Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland, strategy group for rural development, working group on agri-environment payments, working group on animal welfare payments and guidance group on rural network and it's working groups and the local action groups were asked to state their...

Ce document synthétise la vingtaine de contributions reçues. Elle n'engage pas les services de l'état, ni l'intégralité des membres du réseau rural. La dizaine de contributions parvenue a mobilisé une vingtaine d’acteurs principalement régionaux (3 réseaux régionaux, 2 organismes consulaires, collectivités territoriales, acteurs divers,...). La synthèse de ces contributions a...

A young female farmer in Lithuania benefited from EAFRD business start-up support to establish a modern, profitable farm. The support helped her to plan her business more effectively and enabled her to buy new equipment to make her farm efficient and competitive.   

Following the extra meeting of the Coordination Committee of the European Rural Development Network held in Brussels on April 14th  The National Rural Network received proposals from nine members: four of them are active in the field of rural development (National Agricultural Research Foundation – {NAGREF}, Agricultural Products Certification &...

The Hungarian National Rural Network (HNRN) has been active in publicizing the CAP reform process since 2009. The series of events started with a national conference, “The future of the Common Agricultural Policy” organized by the Presidency of the HNRN in December 2009 to discuss the various CAP scenarios. The...

In July 2009, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food launched a public consultation process on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2013. As part of this process, the Department invited interested parties to submit their views on the range of issues that arise in relation to the future of...

The target group for the questionnaire, developed by Latvian National Rural Network (NRN) were rural inhabitants. Latvian NRN chose two ways to collect the necessary information – via questionnaire on NRN’s internet home page www.laukutikls.lv (264 respondents) and by organizing open discussions in different regions of Latvia (48 discussions). In...

Following the launching of the public debate regarding the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) at the European level and as discussed in the additional meeting of the Coordination Committee of the European Network for Rural Development of 14 April 2010, the Romanian National Rural Development Network (NRDN) has...

In response to the challenge launched by the European Network for Rural Development (EN RD), the Portuguese Rural Network held a wide debate on the future of the Rural Development Policy. This debate was organized around the questions posed: • What should be the objectives of the future rural development policy? • How...

From the findings that emerge from both the general public as well as the main stakeholders of the agricultural sector it is clear that there is a convergence of attitudes on a number of key issues related to the sector, although the findings among the general public must be read...

Sofia, Bulgaria - Visitors to the first Terra Madre Balkans event, which opened in Sofia today, were greeted with specialty cheeses, artisan breads, jam and honey. The food fair for small-scale farmers and producers, devised by the organization Slow Food and supported by WWF, kicked off in the Botanical Garden...

Le pastoralisme est une des pratiques les plus anciennes de l’activité humaine. Il produit des paysages spécifiques, à la fois par la marque qu'il imprime au territoire et par les traditions culturelles matérielles et immatérielles qui leur sont associées. Exposé à des mutations profondes dans certaines régions, en voie de...

The motivation behind the ENRD's consideration of this topic and this background paper, which raises some key issues for further debate, is two-fold. Firstly, the last two enlargements in 2004 and 2007 brought millions of small farms into the EU, most of which are either subsistence farms (SFs) or semi-subsistence...