Sustainability indicators at the farm level for monitoring and evaluating the CAP

E1: Greening: Permanent grassland, E2: Greening: Existing/created areas of EFA, E3: Semi-natural farmland areas, E4: Pesticide usage (Pesticide risk score), E5: Nutrient balance (N, P) (farm-gate balance), E6: Soil organic matter in arable land, E7: Indirect energy usage, E8: Direct energy usage, E9: On-farm RE production, E10:Farm management to reduce nitrate leaching, E11: Farm management to reduce soil erosion, E12: Use of Legumes, E13: GHG Emissions per product, E14: GHG Emissions per ha, E15: Carbon Sequestration, E16: Water usage and storage, E17: Irrigation practices

EI1: Innovation, EI2: Producing under a label or brand, EI3: Types of market outlet, EI4: Farm succession, EI5: Efficiency field parcel (LPIS), EI6: Modernity of the farm Investment, EI7: Insurance (events outside the control of farm), including personal (disability) & farm (building structure) insurance, EI8: Share of output under contract with a fixed price, EI9: Risk exposure (non-agricultural activities)

S1: Advisory service provided to the farm, S2: Education and training, S3: Ownership/management, S4: Social engagement/participation, S5: Employment and working conditions, S6: Quality of life, S7: Social diversification: improving the image of farmers/agriculture in local communities

The maintenance of permanent grassland is a prime policy target, expecting it to provide carbon sequestration and benefit local biodiversity. This study summarises novel environmental sustainability indicators that include the proportion of permanent grassland managed intensively or extensively, the proportion of permanent grassland managed extensively and with designated nature protection, and the area covered by semi-natural habitats.

This study includes all nine participating Member States. It compares three indicators for farm-level SOM management using FLINT data (CountPractices: count SOM relevant practices on-farm), FLINT and FADN data (SOM index: sum of the area with SOM-relevant farming practices divided by total farm area) as well as FLINT and FADN data + coefficients from standard data tables (SOM balance: SOM return to the field – SOM removal through harvest). Results indicated that the SOM index is the most suitable of the three indicators.

This study includes all nine participating Member States. However, many water indicators are only estimated for regions in Spain and Greece. It uses the FLINT indicators on ‘Water consumption and metering per source: rainfall storage, watercourse, groundwater, mains supply’, ‘Water consumption and metering per usage: livestock, irrigation, others’, and ‘Irrigation: network organisation, energy dependence, water payment system’.

This study includes all nine participating Member States except France. It defines the economically sustainable farm as the economically vulnerable farm regarding agricultural production but considered sustainable due to the presence of off-farm income. Differences in viability and economic sustainability are shown across the eight Member States surveyed. The analysis is sensitive to the factors included in the viability measurement and the threshold income used to define viability.

This study includes all nine participating Member States. It incorporates environmental outputs in the calculation of technical efficiency. It performs the analysis of the effects of CAP subsidies on technical efficiency for more than one thousand farms, with FADN data and additional data collected via the FLINT project. Results indicate that subsidies on farm technical efficiency changes when environmental outputs (greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen balance and ecological focus areas) are considered in the efficiency calculation.

This study includes all nine participating Member States except France. It provides insight into different adoption rates of five types of innovation in agriculture across Europe. These types refer to product innovations that are new for the company within the last three years, new product innovations for the market, new process innovations for the company within the previous three years, new process for the market, and organisational innovations. In combination with the FADN database, the FLINT database is shown to have the potential for supporting policy on competitiveness and sustainability.

This study includes all nine participating Member States except France. It considers three complementary or substitutes three mainstream categories of risk management strategies: insurances, contracts, and alternative methods (such as diversification and off-farm income). It assesses the adoption of these strategies and the determinants of farmers’ choices for complementary or substitute instruments in the EU.

This study analyses the impact of farmer age on economic, environmental and social indicators of sustainability in the EU, incorporating new data from the FLINT project on the age at which a farmer becomes a decision-maker. Irish FLINT and FADN data combined suggest that the older the farmer is when they establish themselves as a decision-maker, the less likely the farm is to be sustainable and the more likely the farmer is to reside in a vulnerable household.

This study examines the use of extension services by farm households by exploring the type of extension service engaged with, the degree of engagement and the kind of information sought. In addition, the impact of extension services on economic, environmental and social sustainability is also considered. FLINT and FADN data combined outline how households engage with extension services and the implications for sustainability at the farm level. It also suggests that national policies primarily influence the degree to which households engage with extension services.

This study explores the use of advisory services and their linkages with sustainability as measured through FLINT indicators. Results indicate that differences exist concerning the number of contacts of farms with advisory services across countries, type of farms, farmers’ degree of agricultural education, utilised agricultural area, legal type of farm ownership and economic size of the farms. The number of contacts with advisory services is positively related to the adoption of innovations, measures for farm diversification, and the number of sources of information utilised at the farm level.