How to assess generational renewal among European farmers
Zagreb hosted the sixth Good Practice Workshop which provided an insightful platform for learning more about the evaluation of CAP Strategic Plans interventions to support young and new farmers.
The evaluation of the coherence among national and European policies was at the centre of discussions among the 84 evaluators and Managing Authorities' representatives who participated in the Good Practice Workshop 'Assessing generational renewal in CAP Strategic Plans' in Zagreb, Croatia, on 14-15 March.
In the opening of the workshop, Mr Daniele Bertolozzi from the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP highlighted the importance of addressing demographic decline. "According to a recent JRC study on mapping the risks and vulnerabilities in the EU food supply chain, almost half of the agricultural stakeholders interviewed perceived the lack of generational renewal as a real threat to their sectors, having an impact already in the next five years," he said.
Examples of previous evaluations (i.e. Malta, Italy and Spain) suggested that CAP measures are most effective when relevant national initiatives are also in place.
Ms Sophie Helaine, Head of Unit of A3 'Policy performance' at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), provided an overview of instruments and indicators for assessing generational renewal under the CAP.
It's key to assess the effectiveness of CAP measures that promote generational renewal, but the CAP cannot do it all. Thus, we discussed a lot about other factors affecting generational renewal and the barriers, such as access to land and access to credit for which Member States have much more leeway in adapting their regulations. At the same time, we see the challenge of doing such evaluations because it means it needs to go really beyond the CAP.
Group work enhanced the understanding of generational renewal and its gender aspects from an evaluation perspective.
Participants noted that policy effects were not linked solely to the choice of interventions but also to their design, thereby increasing the need to learn more about how to improve the design of support in the future. Evaluations should also assess the extent to which transferred farms are more sustainable and the extent to which policy contributed to the improvement in farm performance and development.
Ms Bernardica Bošnjak from the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture made the final remarks.
The main lesson learned during this workshop is that farmers generational renewal is a common topic for all Member States. We have heard many useful ideas on how to tackle it during evaluations, with a bigger emphasis on a qualitative analysis, but also what we could take into account for future investments, for future interventions, how to generate a bigger impact and how evaluation can give us useful results to improve and, try to at least, stop this negative trend that is happening all over Europe.
At the end of the two day event, participants also visited two farms managed by young farmers, providing firsthand insights into the experiences and expectations of young farmers in the agricultural sector.
For more detailed insights, refer to the full report of the Good Practice Workshop on ‘Assessing Generational Renewal in CAP Strategic Plans’.