The 2013 Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy - A Literature Review on the Effectiveness of the Greening Measures

Even before the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy for the period of 2014 - 2020 came into force, the effectiveness of the greening measures in particular was criticised. In order to receive direct payments in full, farmers must meet requirements with regard to crop diversification, the maintenance of permanent grassland and ecological focus areas. The greening measures should contribute to making the Common Agricultural Policy more environmentally and climate-friendly. Therefore, by means of a literature review, this paper examines the current state of studies in order to identify similarities in the results as well as implications for the effectiveness of greening. The results of the literature review show that the greening measures contribute little to the environmental objectives mentioned within the framework of the 2013 reform. Overall, the literature review reveals that greening measures must be adapted more strongly to the heterogeneity of the farms and to regional differences between and within the Member States. With regard to the decision-making behaviour of farmers, the literature review shows that farmers perceive themselves more as food producers and not as suppliers of public goods. Therefore, they rarely select the greening practices with the highest environmental value. Re-weighting the greening practices with a high ecological value or offering stronger financial incentives could counteract this. This paper is significant for both policy-makers and researchers in this field, as it identifies a need for policy action to improve the effectiveness of greening measures and also identifies research needs that, too, could make an important contribution to further improving the greening measures.