This is the Draft Final Report of the DG AGRI “Study on Availability of Access to Computer Networks in Rural Areas”. It provides policy makers, stakeholders and others, with concrete guidance on how to maximise the benefits of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) for growth and jobs...

This study compiles and summarizes the existing knowledge about observed and projected impacts of climate change on forests in Europe and reviews options for forests and forestry to adapt to climate change. It has been commissioned by the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development...

The importance of sustainable management of non-market forest goods and services has increased during the last few years. This is also reflected in a number of policy documents within the EU. The new EU Rural Development Regulation speaks about the “non-productive investments", as investments...

This study focuses on the assessment of index tools for agricultural insurances. Index insurances basically differ from traditional agricultural insurances in that they do not refer to the actual farm losses, but to the losses evaluated from an index. This index can be, for example, some area...

The background to this study is the establishment of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), providing decoupled support to farmers, which was the central element of the 2003 CAP reform. The Member States of the EU-15 had to implement the SPS at the latest by 2007. The Member States had some...

The aim of the study was to review the policy instruments under the framework of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), 2007-13, by: reviewing intervention rationales and instruments and their use against the objectives, priorities and key actions in the EU Strategic...

The dairy sector makes a substantial contribution to the agricultural turnover in many Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) as well as in the EU as a whole. Nevertheless, within the EU-27, the size and agricultural importance of the dairy sector varies considerably between MS and across...

This study is a feasibility analysis of a European platform for data and information exchange for the European fruit and vegetable market. The specific tasks of the study are defined in details by the Tender specifications as follows: Task 1 - Legal assessment: compatibility of the platform with...

Over the last few decades, crucial changes have taken place in the views and demands on forests by society at large. This includes the increased environmental awareness and recreational interests of society. These changes also affect the public’s way of looking at the traditional role of...

‘Modulation’ is a policy mechanism for shifting funding from the part of the CAP budget dedicated to providing direct payments to farmers (Pillar 1) to the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development (Pillar 2), which aims to provide targeted support to rural areas, to improve the...