Europe’s farmers face a tall order. Long tasked with providing us with safe and affordable food, they are now expected to help generate jobs and economic growth as well. This priority was at the heart of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the European Union speech earlier this month....

Urban agriculture is a hidden champion. It has been neglected for decades by both, urban and agricultural policies. City planners treated the agricultural land as potential building ground, agricultural policies focussed on the rural areas. But due to worldwide challenges as urbanisation, food security and the need for a sustainable...

This report examines the position of farmers in the supply chain and makes recommendations as to how to improve that position. It is the result of the deliberations of the Agricultural Markets Task Force (Task Force), which was set up in January 2016 as a European Commission expert group at...

Starting in June 2016, and each year until 2024, Member States shall submit to the Commission an Annual Implementation Report (AIR). The AIR provides information about the implementation of the rural development programme (RDP), as well as the evaluation plan. The AIR submitted in 2017 (hereinafter: AIR 2017) shall also...

The total organic area in the EU-28 (i.e. the fully converted area and the area under conversion) was more than 10 million ha in 2013 and accounted for 5.8% of the total UAA. The size of the organic area differs substantially among Member States. In absolute terms 4 Member States...

The manual overviews existing European policies on integration of migrants and looks at examples of successful social inclusion approaches in different EU Member States. It further provides practical guidance for NGOs to develop and implement effective strategies for the integration of migrants in rural areas.

The importance of forests with regard to supporting human needs is considerable. Forests are rich in biodiversity and valuable for recreation, water regulation and soil protection. As well as for providing timber and other non-wood forest products, forests are important for mitigating climate change and for the renewable energy sector....

This report presents the medium-term outlook for the major EU agricultural commodity markets and agricultural income to 2026, based on a set of coherent macroeconomic assumptions deemed most plausible at the time of the analysis. The projections assume a continuation of current agricultural and trade policies. These assumptions imply relatively smooth...

Social networks are becoming more and more popular, but did you know that you can even use them to order local, fresh fruit and vegetables? It has become possible thanks to a network of Finnish volunteers called REKO using Facebook to organize the deliveries of local products directly from farmer...

Association of private farming of the Czech Republic is a member of European farmers’ organization COPA, which represents more than 23 million farmers and their families from all over Europe. Together with COGECA European organization for agri-cooperatives organized Congress of European Farmers close to Athens in Greece. The title of...

In an interview with EurActiv’s partner EFE, the president of the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA), Alan Jagoe, called for more aid for people new to the industry and criticised national governments for doing more for veteran farmers than their younger counterparts. Although Jagoe conceded that the current Common Agricultural...

Les expériences et points de vue exprimés montrent que le partenariat en AMAP est une recette composée de nombreux ingrédients : une réflexion sur ce que nous mangeons, une nouvelle logique d’approvisionnement local, un apprentissage mutuel à travers des échanges, notamment de plats à cuisiner, le plaisir des repas, la découverte...

The dairy farm is located in Nucet, Dâmbovița County in the south of the Sub-Carpathians, between the plains and the southern hills. The region has a rich agricultural heritage for growing vegetables (64% of total production) and livestock (34%). In 2016 19,170 dairy cows were registered in the county, yet only...

This conference will seek to encourage debate on the benefits to be gained from more sustainable resource use and greater integration of different land uses on lowland and upland farming systems. It will present the best possible scientific understanding of the complexities associated with how best to achieve such an...

The slowdown in the economic growth of developing economies, although partially compensated by a recovery in developed countries, contributes to the general decline in commodity prices, including in oversupplied crude oil. Depreciation in some competing currencies limits the competitive advantage of the euro at 1.10 EUR/USD. In 2016, milk deliveries...

In the EU-28, the total utilised agricultural area (UAA) was 174 million ha in 2013. France had the largest agricultural area (28 million ha) covering 16% of the total UAA in Europe, followed by Spain (23 million ha) and the UK (17 million ha). 71 % of the total agricultural...

Though still associated with bucolic imagery, farmers confront a steep challenge: produce 60% more food for an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050 while using scarce natural resources more efficiently and adapting to climate change. Luckily  ICT is here to help: sensor-based, data-intensive ‘smart’ farming will potentially add $10b per...

High Nature Value (HNV) farming is a relatively new concept that has been developed since the early 1990s as a policy tool to describe those farming systems in Europe which are of greatest biodiversity value. Instead of focusing only upon the maintenance of rare or endangered species and habitats on...

The monthly value of EU agri-food exports in June 2016 reached EUR 10.9 billion and, thus, slightly exceeded the export values in June of previous years. EU agri-food imports went down from EUR 9.8 billion in June 2015 to EUR 9.5 billion in June 2016; thus the net trade surplus...

Du 19 au 22 avril  2016 se tient un « atelier international sur la bactérie «  Xylella fastidiosa » et  «  Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS) : Syndrome du déclin rapide des oliviers’. Cet atelier est organisé par la FAO et la Convention internationale de la Protection des Végétaux (CIPV / IPPC)  et le...