Defining the Concept of “Genuine Farmer” under the Common Agricultural Policy after 2020
Summary
The European Commission Draft Regulation on Common Agricultural Policy 2021- 2027, proposes that the concept of ”genuine farmers” shall be defined so as to ensure that no support is granted to those whose agricultural activity forms only an insignificant part of their overall economic activities or whose principal business activity is not agricultural, while not precluding from support pluri-active farmers. The Commission proposal has sparked debate among Member States, since defining the concept of “genuine farmer” is the basis for receiving support. The aim of the research was to determine the opinion of agricultural representatives regarding the definition of “genuine farmer”. Consequently, agricultural representatives of various agricultural associations from the Republic of Croatia were interviewed in two phases. In the first phase, agricultural representatives were examined within a focus group under the project “CAP for You” funded by the European Commission. In the second phase, agricultural representatives from the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture were asked to write their own definition of “genuine farmer”. The results showed that the majority of these representatives considered “genuine farmer” one whose primary business activity is agriculture.
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