Analysis of the use of selected agri-environmental and climate measures and organic farming

The subject of this report is the acceptance of area-based agri-environmental and climate measures (AECM) and the area-based promotion of organic farming through the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Rural Areas Programme from 2014 to 2022 (Rural Development Programme (RDP)).

The analyses aim to provide information on whether and to what extent different types of farms and regions are supported by AECM funding. The report starts by analysing financial inputs and funding volumes for the entire AECM and organic farming portfolio. More in-depth considerations, including participant/non-participant comparisons, site- and region-specific evaluations, farm-specific analyses and time series trends, are carried out for measures with larger commitment scopes, permitting corresponding data stratification.

In accordance with the detailed concept for the evaluation plan, an acceptance analysis is used to examine participation in the AECM and organic farming within the NRW Rural Areas Programme for the 2014-2022 funding period. The annual Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) data provided by the Paying Agency was used in this report to present the scope of funding and the measure-related analyses.

Overall, it can be seen that the area supported and the number of participants in all sub-measures offered during the past funding period, up to 2020, have increased significantly. One exception is the cultivation of winter-hardy cover crops. As a result, the net total of the subsidised area of AECM and organic farming almost doubled as a proportion of the arable land in NRW, increasing from 13% in 2015 to just under 25% in 2020. Around 31% of the farms managed under IACS in NRW participated in one of the two measures in 2020.