This is part of a series of Briefs summarising the facts and addressing the policy relevance around the 9 proposed specific objectives of the future CAP
KEY MESSAGES
- Pressures on the EU agricultural resource base have increased due to growing food and industrial demand, which is driven by demographic and disposable income changes. On the supply side, there is growing competition for the same production factors (land, labour, capital) and growing pressure on the use of natural capital (with impact on environment and climate);
- Increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable way is essential to meet the challenges of higher demand in a resource-constrained and climate uncertain world;
- EU agricultural productivity is already high, partly due to increased labour productivity. However, stagnation in recent years is associated with challenges that both the agricultural sector and EU civil society have to face, such as food prices, climate change, or loss of biodiversity;
- A number of drivers and policy tools are available to trigger productivity gains in EU agriculture, such as research and innovation programs, new technologies, rural development and infrastructure, efficient advisory systems and continuous training for farm managers.