Towards Green Agriculture and Sustainable Development: Pro-Environmental Activity of Farms under the Common Agricultural Policy

Abstract

Growing environmental and climate problems in the contemporary world necessitate the search for efficient solutions, including changes in agriculture, which has been reflected in the new package of reforms of the EU climate policy, called the European Green Deal (the EGD). Agriculture and rural areas play an essential role in the attainment of the EGD goals, and one of the prerequisites for an effective implementation of the EGD assumptions is to recognize the mechanism underlying the activity of agricultural farms in the scope of pro-environmental measures implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This article presents an endeavour to make a multidimensional evaluation of the spatial diversification in such activities, using Polish farms as an example. Compared to other EU member states, Poland is a country where agriculture remains a substantial sector in the national economy. This research is based on data from several institutions, including the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA), responsible for the allocation of funds from the EU budget and for providing support to the development of agriculture and rural areas. The level and structure of the absorption of funds from the CAP underwent analysis, including three pro-environmental measures of the Rural Development Programme: organic farming (OF), agri-environment climate measure (AECM), and afforestation and creation of forest areas (ACFA). In order to achieve a holistic approach to these measures, an innovative analytical model was developed. It can be applied to analyses on a regional, national, and European level, and it is based on several novel indicators, as well as advanced statistical and spatial analyses. The research demonstrates that the pro-environment activities of farmers are characterized by a significant geographical diversity. The most active in soliciting payments from the CAP were agricultural farms with a high level of pro-environment internal characteristics of agriculture (IPEAF = 30.1%, with national average = 11.6%). With regard to anthropogenic determinants, relatively higher values of the IPEAF indicator were found in the municipalities with a lower level of socio-economic development (12.1%) and those located in northern and western Poland, within the borders of the former Prussian Partition (18.6%), characterised by higher farming culture. The research results imply that the effectiveness of the up-to-date solutions needs to be improved, also by taking into consideration the endogenous conditions and potential of individual territorial units. The research results also prove the expediency of implementing the European Green Deal. Conducting an analysis of the pro-environmental activity of farms, taking into account both the applications of the current CAP financial perspective and those resulting from follow-up activities regarding the previous perspective, is an innovative approach to the issue.

Analysis of green deal communication on twitter: environmental and political perspective

“…As confirmed by previous studies, negative or questioning perceptions exist among farmers, especially regarding the increasing costs, decreasing income, and reduced profitability associated with farm-to-fork initiatives (Riccaboni et al, 2021;Cortignani et al, 2022;Adina et al, 2023). This topic was associated with the terms "EU," "European Green Deal," "food," "agriculture," "strategy," "policy," "Common Agricultural Policy," "biodiversity," and "pesticide" (Borrelli et al, 2023;Lecina-Diaz et al, 2023;Rudnicki et al, 2023). From the results, it was evident that the "Farm to Fork" topic was also discussed at the regional level, as shown by its inclusion as a key term within the 12th topic, the Dutch perspective.…”

Green growth in agriculture―New measurement concept and its empirical verification

“…In recent decades, new terms like 'green economy', 'green agriculture', 'green growth', or 'green order' have become part of the scientific discourse, underlying the relation of the economy to the biosphere (Rudnicki et al, 2023). The concept of green growth is now meaningful in the political discourse of the world economic and development institutions.…”

“…Since 2013 the so-called greening instruments have been implemented (Gocht et al, 2017). The new CAP of the EU (2023-2027) aims to reverse the present degradation of the environment and decrease the biological diversity of European agricultural land by achieving three green goals: contributing to mitigating climate change, supporting effective management of the natural resources and preservation of biological diversity (Morales et al, 2022;Rudnicki et al, 2023). The OECD countries also introduced a wide range of policies to reduce the adverse impact of agricultural activity on the environment, such as regulations on input and output use, agrienvironmental payments, taxes, tradable permits and communitybased measures (Guerrero, 2021;Vojtech, 2010).…”

A comparative view of the level of agricultural sustainability – The case of European Union member states

“…Since agriculture is a sector, second to the energy industry, responsible for greenhouse gas emissions (11%) in the European Union (European Environmental Agency, 2023), the transition of agriculture towards a more sustainable and climate-friendly sector could significantly contribute to achieving the goals of the Green Deal (Boix-Fayos & de Vente, 2023). However, pursuing a policy taking the requirements of the natural environment and social goals into consideration requires a compromise between agricultural producers oriented at maximising their income and the interest of the whole society seeing the care for the natural environment as a priority (Rudnicki et al, 2023). Furthermore, the diversity of challenges to agriculture clearly shows that the transformation towards sustainable agriculture is not only a technicality of agricultural practices but requires a holistic approach comprising this sector's social, economic, cultural, technical and environmental aspects.…”