CAP must support farm incomes and address price and income volatility

THE future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) must support farm incomes and address the issue of price and income volatility while at the same time avoiding market distortions.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister Brendan Smith made this clear when he addressed an informal meeting of the EU Council of Agricultural Ministers in Merida, Spain.

“We must make sure that the CAP of the future encourages competitiveness and innovation through appropriate measures, including support for farm investment,” he said.

As the debate on the CAP’s future intensifies, Mr Smith said promoting sustainability in all its dimensions and rewarding farmers for the public goods they provide are essential for the future of the industry.

Mr Smith said it is important the EU 2020 strategy is aligned with pre-existing policies such as the CAP and there should be integration and alignment in both directions.

Agriculture has much to contribute to the strategy and it in turn must make a major contribution to the industry’s future.

Repeating his call for a strong and properly resourced EU agricultural policy that can deliver the set goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, he said this position was echoed by the vast majority of member states at the meeting in Merida.

Mr Smith also met with French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire to discuss the common ground they share on the shape of the CAP after 2013.

He also availed of the opportunity to meet with the new British Secretary of State Caroline Spelman. They agreed to have a further meeting in the near future.

Padraig Walshe, president of COPA, the European farmers union, told the ministers an estimated one in six jobs depends on agricultural production in the EU.

But production is falling sharply in many sectors, especially the meat sector, and imports, which do not have to meet the same high standards as those in the EU, are increasing.

Mr Walshe said EU farmers’ incomes are continuing to plummet, with many reaching 1990 levels. This has resulted in a huge 25% drop in employment in the agriculture sector between 2000 and 2009.

Greater weight must be put under the CAP to reinforcing the economic production role of farmers, in a way that maintains employment and the economic viability of rural areas.