Assessing generational renewal strategies within and beyond the CAP
A new Thematic Working Group will develop a practical, integrated toolbox to help managing authorities and evaluators assess how CAP and related national or regional policies support generational renewal in agriculture.
Half of Europe's current farming population is expected to retire over the next decade, and new entrants face barriers, including access to land. Not only are there issues associated with entering farming, but there is also the question of how to sustain new entrants in the long term.
The Thematic Working Group on 'Assessment of generational renewal strategies covering elements beyond CAP', organised by the EU CAP Network with the support of the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP, will explore how to analyse the generational renewal challenges. This work is relevant for Member States who must assess the contribution of CAP support to Specific Objective 7 and, in addition, are encouraged by the EU Strategy on generational renewal to develop, by 2028, evidence-based and comprehensive generational renewal strategies that cover both CAP and national or regional policies.
Substantial analytical work already exists at the Member State and EU level, including guidance from the Evaluation Helpdesk, that identifies key barriers for young and new farmers to enter the sector and assesses the contribution of CAP support to generational renewal.
This Thematic Working Group aims to build on this knowledge and develop a methodological toolbox for assessing generational renewal strategies.
Experts from the Evaluation Helpdesk, Member States, the European Commission and the Joint Research Centre will tackle the evaluation challenges related to scoping and structuring of related evaluations, and netting-out of the effects of CAP support.
The guidance will include a generic intervention logic, a set of evaluation questions, factors of success and practical methodological tools, considering the assessment of the various entry barriers to the agricultural sector. The aim is to publish the output as a user-friendly online toolbox on the EU CAP Network website.