Towards a more resilient and sustainable agriculture sector – 8th annual EU conference on EAFRD financial instruments

The EU agricultural sector, farmers and rural areas are facing increasing challenges. The long-lasting disruption in production and consumption due to the effects of Covid-19, the current energy crisis and rising inflation, the war in Ukraine as well as various and rather devastating climate events (such as fires and floods) are placing farmers’ incomes and economic perspectives under significant pressure. These events also have a serious territorial impact since they negatively affect the economic and social development of EU rural areas.

Watch the conference recording:

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) organised the 8th annual EU conference on EAFRD financial instruments ‘Towards a more resilient and sustainable agriculture sector’ to discuss possible responses to the above challenges. The conference brought together managing authorities, experts, farm unions’ representatives, European Investment Bank Group and European Commission officials.

EU farmers facing increasing market pressure need to have a stable economic and policy support environment to help them maintaining their capacity to produce food that is of high quality, healthy and affordable, and to contribute to the green transformation of the European economy and in agriculture.

The main highlights of the conference were the CAP economic interventions such as direct payments, investments, support for young farmers, financial instruments and risk management. The conference also featured new investment and agricultural strategies of the Member States, which are at the forefront of the new policy developments, focusing on Member States with approved CAP Strategic Plans for 2023-2027.