Search results

The resilience of European farms and farming systems has become prominent on the policy agenda, but the definition of resilience tends to be interpreted narrowly as the ability to withstand shocks and maintain the status quo. We argue that resilience encompasses the capacity of farms, farmers and farming systems to anticipate, cope and respond to shocks and stresses. This capacity is not only influenced by resources held and developed by farmers, but also by resources invested and allocated in farming systems by government and society at large. Furthermore, resilience is not only about coping with crisis, it is also about building up capacity to adapt or even transform farming systems. This should be done by reflecting on three key questions: (1) what characteristics of a farming system enable or constrain anticipating, coping and responsive capacities; (2) which actors can – or even should – play which role in building and mobilising resources to develop these capacities; and (3) how should institutions govern investment in and use resources and capacities? The Common Agricultural Policy – but also other policies – play a key role in determining farming system resilience. However, they tend to put more resources into developing safety nets than into stimulating adaptation and especially transformation. ; en; EU; contact: erik.mathijs@ees.kuleuven.be

The Resilience Assessment Tool (ResAT) builds on broad academic literature that has identified characteristics of resilience-enhancing policies. However, it adds a distinction between policy characteristics that enhance either robustness, adaptability or transformability. This report presents the findings from an application of the Resilience Assessment Tool in eleven case studies across Europe to assess whether and how the current configuration of EU and national policies supports or constrains the capacity of regional farming systems to cope with the range of novel challenges. Understanding the CAP's effects on the resilience of regional farming systems requires an analysis of the interactions between the CAP and various other policies, which occur not only within the sector, but also across sectors and jurisdictional levels. ; BE; en; contact: Eewoud.Lievens@kuleuven.be

Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Privatisierungsmethoden in der Landwirtschaft in Osteuropa. Die Autoren gehen darüber hinaus auf die Eigentumsproblematik im Zusammenhang mit der Privatisierung ein und analysieren die einzelnen Faktoren, die die Dekollektivierung beeinflussen. (BIOst-Mrk)

Coming to terms with recent insights concerning the (post-) political is a key challenge for transition management. To start with, transition management understands the relation transition initiatives adopt towards existing regimes not in political, but in market terms. This impacts their internal processes, which are based on a deliberative notion of democracy, assuming the existence of a common good and misrecognizing the constitutive role of conflict. Moreover, transition management embraces a governance approach centring on public–private bodies which, in the name of bottom-up processes and participation, especially gives a voice to a privileged group of business, policy and civil society actors. Insofar as citizens get a place, it is merely in their role as consumers. Finally, as it is based on a market model itself, transition management fails to politicize one of the most fundamental current 'landscape' elements. The crucial question is how these features affect transition management's possibilities to contribute to effective and democratic sustainable change.

Challenges that threaten the performance of farming systems have put resilience high on the agenda. Actions and strategies to stimulate the resilience of farming systems should follow six key principles that describe how actors in the farming system and its environment (governments, value chain businesses, banks, advisors and others) should act. How these principles translate into concrete recommendations is specific to regions and sectors. A co-creation process such as a policy dialogue should be created to develop roadmaps towards supporting resilience. ; en; EU; contact: erwin.wauters@ilvo.vlaanderen.be

First published in 1997 in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union and its agricultural policies, these editors presented a series of ten related articles on the transition to post-communist, more privatised agricultural policies, each specialising in a specific region of Central and Eastern Europe. Resulting from a research network, this volume features a range of contributors, including those preparing PhDs, former governmental advisors and specialists in agricultural economics, food policy and statistics. The chapters cover Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Solvenia, and the Former Soviet Union, along with a comparative analysis. The contributors focus on three key issues of reform: the collection of detailed data, the collection of information on factors influencing the progress and completion of reform and explaining the results of privatisation and land reform, with a particular emphasis on the first two elements. This volume is well-suited to policy makers, analysists and researchers.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union is essential to enhance the resilience of Europe's farming systems along three capacities: robustness, adaptability and transformability. The SURE-Farm project conducted the first systematic assessment how the CAP performs in this regard. The findings show that hitherto the CAP has been overly focused on supporting the robustness of an increasingly fragile status quo, with uneven effects, while neglecting adaptability and even constraining transformability. The future CAP needs to allow for a better balance with policy mixes that are tailored to regional needs, based on a shared long-term vision. This implies replacing direct payments with measures that specifically address resilience needs, e.g. points-based eco-schemes, agro-environmental programs, coordinated adaptation to shifting markets, ample support for cross-sectoral cooperation, innovation and advice to integrate production and provision of public goods, and participatory and integrative foresight to develop transformation pathways. ; EU; en; contact: miranda.meuwissen@wur.nl