Networking, the CAP, and the future: insights from our recent Thematic Groups
- CAP Implementation
- Agricultural Production
- Climate and Climate Change
- Generational Renewal
- Long-term Vision for Rural Areas
- Sustainability
Discover key insights from our latest TGs on sustainable and competitive livestock systems, farm diversification, and a Just Transition in the agri-food sector.
Between January and June 2026, three EU CAP Network Thematic Groups (TGs) explored important topics for agriculture and rural development: more sustainable and competitive livestock systems, farm diversification, and a Just Transition in the agri-food sector. Three different topics, three different groups of people, yet three recurring points: the importance of networking, the potential of the CAP, and the need to think about the future.
There was real-life cheese-tasting and virtual coffee breaks, online presentations and farm visits, inspiring ideas and experiences from the ground. Here is a recap of key points from these lively discussions.
A systemic approach for more sustainable livestock systems
Livestock systems play an important economic, social, environmental, and cultural role in the EU. Like all forms of agriculture, livestock is also called to play its part in helping to meet the EU’s climate goals.
The Thematic Group on the CAP's Role in Supporting Sustainable and Competitive Livestock Systems explored how to improve the way CAP Strategic Plans (CSPs) are used to support the transition to more sustainable livestock systems.
This TG took off at the end of January with an in-person meeting, during which, after warming up with a cheese-tasting challenge, members explored different pathways and approaches already in place across the EU, and identified a wide range of possible solutions to transition towards more sustainable livestock systems.
A key overarching message concerned the need for a systemic approach, acknowledging the interrelations among producers, consumers, the market, the environment, and institutions.
Group discussions at the 1st Thematic Group meeting on Sustainable Livestock Systems highlighted many challenges – but also, fortunately, a wide range of possible solutions, including:
- Developing new business models – and sharing success stories
- Scaling up innovation
- Seeing the environment as an economic opportunity
- Ensuring the long-term sustainability of public funding
- Improving rural infrastructure to strengthen access to markets
- Securing fair prices for farmers from both public & private sectors
We can’t work on just one issue — we need a systemic approach, as all elements relate to each other.
This is why our Thematic Group members gathered: to discuss and exchange experiences in view of finding solutions.
Members of the Thematic Group on Sustainable Livestock Systems identified various pathways for sustainable and competitive livestock systems.
Common themes emerging across the diversity of systems include:
- Being price makers through product differentiation and added value
- Broadening and deepening cooperation with each other and through the value chain
- Effective use and management of data – quality, accessibility, ownership – to inform decision making for farming, value chain and policy
- A “Rural renaissance” where sustainable livestock systems contribute to thriving rural communities.
The second meeting took TG members to Portugal for a two-day meeting combining presentations, group discussions, and field visits. The group focused on developing concrete actions to improve the sustainability of livestock systems, and on exploring the role of the policy environment to stimulate public and private action – identifying some key areas of action, summarised in the image below.
Which actions can help make sustainable livestock systems more mainstream and competitive?
Here are some key takeaways from the 2nd meeting of the Thematic Group on the CAP's Role in Supporting Sustainable and Competitive Livestock Systems:
- Schemes that focus on rewarding ecosystem service provision, taking into account the carrying capacity of the land are needed
- Supporting new entrants and young farmers needs to go hand in hand with a broader focus on revitalising rural areas to provide the necessary infrastructures
- Farm-level data to allow for better performance assessments and comparisons are key - an EU wide framework could support coherence in this respect
Diversify to thrive
Diversification presents many opportunities for farm businesses to be more resilient in a rapidly changing world. It is a specific entrepreneurial opportunity which requires a holistic approach and a carefully planned strategy, as well as an eye on the future of farming, rural economies, and rural communities.
The TG on Farm Diversification identified challenges and success factors for diversification, acknowledging the diversity of options available as well as the role and importance of supportive, evidence-based policy.
At the first TG meeting, members reflected on a variety of diversification practices, challenges and success factors, different policy approaches, and the role of the CAP in supporting farm diversification, including through support for young farmers, generational renewal, and new entrants.
Members of the Thematic Group on FarmDiversification identified key challenges and success factors for farm diversification, focusing on the role of the CAP.
- Challenges include: land accessibility, lack of skills, and lack of coherence between policies.
- Success factors include: availability of support services, knowledge exchange and peer learning, and bringing in new entrants from other sectors.
The second TG meeting provided a fruitful two-day session combining presentations, group discussions, and field visits with Italian food and hospitality, creating an optimal setting. TG members further discussed practical examples, and explored the CAP alongside other wider policy frameworks. Conversations were focused on developing proposals for policies and support mechanisms to help farm businesses diversify their activities. There was a common understanding that supportive, coherent, and practical policy conditions are key to help farmers ‘diversify to thrive’.
The 2nd meeting of the Thematic Group on Farm Diversification generated a wealth of bold, actionable ideas to better support rural businesses.
Highlights from the group discussions:
- Financial Architecture: Mixing funding streams at all levels and creating flexible, multi-funding mechanisms.
- Strategic Incentives: Implementing 'RISE' (Regional Identification of Special Economic Areas) zones to counter depopulation and aging.
- Knowledge & Skills: Launching digital platforms for multi-actor networking, advisory pipelines, and innovation support.
- Empowerment: Boosting female leadership and professionalising rural roles by strengthening family networks and services.
- Business Innovation: Using clusters to drive smart specialisation and leveraging sector-tailored definitions for diversification.
- Streamlined Growth: Cutting red tape with flexible regulations and tapping into cross-border best practices
Many inspiring examples of CAP-funded farm diversification projects are available in the Good Practice database, and eight of these stories are featured in the latest edition of the EU CAP Network Projects Brochure, where you can read how some small- or medium-sized farms and family farms have walked this path through whole-farm approaches, networking and collective approaches, training, and capacity building.
A Just Transition in the agri-food system
An overarching message coming from most of the TGs so far is the importance of a forward-looking approach that encourages all CAP stakeholders – from farmers to policymakers – to enable, design, and adopt practices where economic viability, environmental ambitions, and social fairness go hand in hand. In short, a Just Transition.
Building on the outcomes of previous thematic work, the TG on the Just Transition in the agri-food system started with an exceptionally dynamic online meeting during which TG members shared their experiences through engaging presentations and intense discussions.
The event highlighted the specificity of the agri-food sector compared to the coal mining sector (where the ‘Just Transition’ concept originated in the early 2000s): the need to take into account a much broader set of stakeholders, since all private and public sector operators are concerned through the food value chain, from producer to consumer. Thus, a key point stressed throughout the meeting was the importance of actual, sustained, and genuine involvement of people directly affected by the transition, to make sure no one feels left behind.
The 1st Thematic Group meeting on the Just Transition in the Agri-Food System built on the experiences of CAP stakeholders around the EU, well beyond this group’s members.
Findings from other Thematic Groups are very relevant for the discussion on this TG, because achieving the Just Transition requires taking into account:
- Enhancing biodiversity on farmland & the environmental sustainability of farming
- The economic vulnerability of farmers
- Generational renewal in agriculture
- Valuing farmers’ contribution to society
- Cooperation
- Improving water resilience in rural areas
- Supporting the transition to more sustainable livestock systems
The second TG meeting brought TG members together in Brussels to develop concrete actions and discuss the role of the policy (particularly the CAP) and governance structures and processes required to support a Just Transition of the agri-food system. A key outcome of the discussions was the need for a holistic approach, bringing together all actors within the agri-food supply chain to agree on shared goals and direction of travel, and ensuring policy coherence.
The 2nd meeting of the Thematic Group on the Just Transition in the Agri-Food System showed that the transition requires a holistic approach, bringing together all actors within the agri-food supply chain, from producers to retailers to consumers to agree on shared goals and direction of travel.
This requires:
- Governance arrangements that ensure the involvement and genuine engagement of all relevant stakeholders, including marginalised voices
- Thinking along the whole value chain, putting circularity and bioeconomy centre stage
- Encouraging greater cooperation and working at the landscape scale for greater impact
- Sharing risk through the value chain, addressing farmers' wellbeing and mental health
- Stability and coherence of the CAP with other policies and leveraging private finance to bolster public funding
Stay tuned!
At the moment of writing, some outputs from these three TGs (including collections of good practices and policy recommendations) are being finalised and will soon be published on the respective TG pages and in our Publications library.
Stay tuned for updates via our monthly newsletter and follow @EUCAPNetwork on social media, where soon you will also find our new calls for expressions of interest to join the next Thematic Groups.
