Greece’s Cap Strategic Plan

CAP Strategic Plans support the transition towards a smart, sustainable, competitive, resilient and diversified agricultural sector, ensuring long-term food security. They also contribute to climate action, the protection of natural resources and the preservation/enhancement of biodiversity, as well as strengthen the socio-economic fabric of rural areas.

The CAP Plans support a wide range of interventions, addressing the specific needs of Member States and their territories. Designed in line with a new result- and performance-oriented approach, they aim to deliver tangible results in relation to EU-level CAP specific objectives, while contributing to the European Green Deal.

For the first time, each CAP Plan defines a strategy covering all the main CAP funded instruments: direct payments, support for rural development and interventions specific to certain market sectors.

The needs of rural areas will also be addressed by other EU instruments such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) or the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF).

The impacts of both the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the extreme weather conditions caused by climate change, highlight the integral link between food security and the need of transition to sustainable and resilient food systems. In this context, the CAP Strategic Plans offer opportunities: e.g. to reduce dependence on synthetic fertilisers and scale up production of renewable energy without undermining food production; and to transform the sectors’ capacity in line with more sustainable production methods.

Greece submitted its first proposal for a CAP Strategic Plan on 30 December 2021, after consultation with stakeholders. On 17 October 2022, Greece submitted a revised proposal, addressing the Commission’s observations on the first draft. The Commission approved this proposal on 21 November 2022. This document presents some of the main features of the CAP Strategic Plan of Greece.

The Greek agricultural sector employs approximately 400 000 people, representing 10% of employment in all sectors. The farm labor force consists mainly of family holdings. Unemployment in rural areas remains an issue, especially for young people, in light of the aging population. More than 70% of the Greek agricultural area faces natural or other specific constraints (for example: extreme slopes, low temperatures, dryness of soil, unfavorable soil texture, borderline areas, island regions) which significantly affect farming.

• Rural areas represent 63% of the Greek territory and the agricultural land amounts to approximately 5.3 million hectares.
• Rural inhabitants represent 31% of the Greek population, a share higher than the EU average.
• Greek agriculture consists of about 700 000 farms, which are rather small in physical size with the average farm being 7 hectares. In fact, more than 70% of the farms consist of less than 5 hectares.

GOALS AND STRATEGY OF THE CAP STRATEGIC PLAN OF GREECE

The Greek CAP Plan responds to modern challenges through a balanced approach to the ambitions of the new CAP for a more resilient, green and digital agriculture, in line with the priorities of the European Green Deal. It marks the shift towards a new production model for Greek agriculture and the entire agri-food sector in Greece. The Plan focuses on improving competitiveness by promoting innovation and new technologies, fostering young entrepreneurship and securing a fair income for farmers. Moreover, the Plan aims to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture. The main priority remains the sustainable development of rural areas.

AN ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE AND FAIRER CAP

Greece aims to increase the sustainability and resilience of its agricultural sector by focusing on the production of quality agricultural products. At the same time, the Plan will improve the economic viability of small and medium-sized holdings, which represent the backbone of Greek agriculture.

Greece will improve competitiveness and global market orientation by ensuring high quality and stable raw material production for sectors that are important for the Greek agri-food system, such as the fruit and vegetables, wine, apiculture, olive oil and table olives sectors.

As a response to the new conditions and challenges that are emerging on the global agri-food market, the Plan aims to strengthen the negotiating power of farmers in the value chain. In order to achieve that, it emphasizes the participation in collective schemes and producer groups (for example, creating inter-branch organizations that will help farmers jointly address the new challenges of the market and strengthen their position in the agri-food value chain) and foresees the reinforcement of certification, standardization and labelling of Greek agricultural products.

• Greece allocates around EUR 4.3 billion to stabilize farmers’ income with basic income support and to mitigate the risk of production decreases arising from price fluctuations and external factors. This support is differentiated and targeted according to agronomic land category (arable land, permanent crop land and pasture/ grazing land) and ranges from EUR 176 per hectare to EUR 270 per hectare.
• An additional EUR 885 million is allocated to improve the sustainability of small and medium farms by ensuring a fairer distribution of support and better targeting of the income support to the agricultural sector.

A GREENER CAP

Greece aims to increase its environmental and climate ambitions by contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation via a more efficient management of natural resources and protection of biodiversity.

The biggest challenge is to reinforce and improve the existing practices as well as the requirements in terms of good agricultural and environmental conditions (such as replacing crop diversification by crop rotation). Greece prioritizes the implementation of interventions going beyond minimum requirements in terms of the climate, environment and animal welfare (eco-schemes) and prioritizes interventions relating to climate change adaptation, protection of soil and water, promotion of organic farming methods, precision farming and preservation of biodiversity and forests.

Greece allocates EUR 1.5 billion for environmental and climate objectives such as organic farming, alternative methods of plant protection with a view to reducing pesticides, reinforcing nature protected areas as well as contributing to water savings and improving infrastructure.

• Greece will dedicate EUR 1.4 billion to organic farming methods, more than doubling the total agricultural land under organic farming.
• More than EUR 425 million per year (with an estimated impact on about 3 million hectares) have been allocated to support eco-schemes, such as using resilient species and varieties, improving green cover practices and reinforcing biodiversity, circular economy and environmentally-friendly management practices.

SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE CAP

To ensure a demographic renewal of the agricultural population, as well as a sustainable development of rural areas, Greece will provide in total over EUR 730 million to young farmers, in combination with actions to support their education, provision of advisory services and reinforcement of their business plans.

In order to promote social inclusion, local development and equality between genders, including the increased participation of women in agriculture, Greece will support the development of local businesses and strengthen investments to serve the local population. Particular emphasis will be placed on actions and initiatives with a social and environmental dimension. More than 4 million people living in rural areas, representing more than 70% of the Greek rural population, will benefit from community-led local development strategies.

Greece plans to improve animal welfare, prevent animal diseases and minimize the use of antibiotics. This will positively affect the production of healthy and high nutritional value products.

• More than 70 000 new jobs will be created in rural areas, through support to young farmers, investments in processing and marketing of agricultural products as well as in forest technologies and marketing of forest products.
• More than 65 000 young farmers will benefit from setting-up support. Moreover, Greece will also complement the income of young farmers (below the age of 40) with EUR 70 per hectare, thus spending EUR 140 million over the period 2023-2027.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING, INNOVATION AND DIGITALISATION

Greece will enable the set-up of a system for agricultural knowledge and innovation (AKIS) in order to promote innovation in the agri-food sector. The CAP Plan will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and new technologies in the primary sector by providing relevant education and training to producers and advice while encouraging cooperation among different actors (for example, researchers and farmers).

Farmers will be incentivized to keep their farms modern and innovative, for example, by investing in digital technologies and/or forming operational groups to develop innovative solutions and practices.

• More than 15 000 farms will participate in groups to exchange ideas and improve the organisation of the supply chain.
• More than 200 000 persons will benefit from advice, training and knowledge exchange or from participating in European Innovation Partnership (EIP) operational groups in order to enhance sustainable economic, social, environmental and climate growth as well as resource efficiency performance.