CAP 2013 "Plus" - the future of small farms

Abstract

The paper deals with the question of role and position of small agricultural farms in the Common Agricultural Policy after 2013. In the light of the role that is to be played by small farms in the process of provision of public goods and ensuring the diversity of agricultural structures in Europe, the author criticizes the to-date instruments applied within the framework of CAP. He emphasizes their weak orientation towards the achievement of definite goals and documents their low effectiveness. He points to the necessity to plan any instruments in such a way as to make them meet the needs of farmers and help realize the tasks of agricultural policy at both the level of individual member-states and the level of the entire European Union. In this context, the author presents a concept of restructuring bonus , addressed to farms smaller than 10 ha (or below 8 ESU), whose maximum amount would be equal to the seven-year base rate and which would constitute a one-off payment made on the condition of permanent withdrawal from agricultural activity through the sale of land serving to increase the acreage of another farm.