Survey of German farmers towards the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on their businesses

Abstract

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is an extensive component and a common policy for all member states of the European Union, as well as the largest budget item in the EU. Despite the provision of billions in subsidies over decades, the current CAP is not capable to achieve the self-set goals, such as climate and nature protection. Moreover, the current way of granting subsidies promotes a structural change that is constantly pushing small and medium-sized companies out of the agricultural market, making it more difficult to develop and strengthen sustainable agriculture and affecting nature and the environment more than necessary. This structural change is also clearly noticeable in German agriculture to highlight threats to agriculture and possible solutions, we present the results of our research that compares and analyzes the findings of a locally conducted survey in the context of the current situation in German agriculture with the results of a nationwide survey. The analysis shows that the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises has steadily declined and that the self-set goals of the EU have not been reached due to the inadequate promotion of a sustainable agriculture. The results indicate the need for structural reforms of the CAP to make it sustainable so that the goals set are not completely missed and, furthermore, agriculture in harmony with society and nature is made possible.