Objective
The development of on-farm complementary activities is now recognised as a necessity for the long term viability and survival of EU farm businesses (CEC, 1997a). Innovative ideas mobilised by entrepreneurial farmers are a central component of this development obligation. Innovative agricultural diversification can moreover significantly improve the prospects for sustained economic performance in the EU's rural regions, where currently almost one-third of all farmers are under-employed (CEC, 1 997a).
IDEAS has therefore three research objectives:
1. To identify dynamic examples of innovative, significant on-farm diversification in four EU regions (Vasterbotten in Sweden, Languedoc-Roussillon in France, Castilla y Leon in Spain, and Lincolnshire in the UK) with emphasis on employment-opportunity creation;
2. In each of these study regions to analyse how innovative forms of diversification in specific localities are incorporated within the suite of existing on-farm activities;
3. To evaluate how innovative forms of diversification have been sustained in the study regions, and in particular, how local/regional institutions and key political actors have interfaced with farmers in their support of innovative on-farm diversification.
IDEAS's objectives conform closely to the priorities of the European Commission in the FAIR Programme, since they intrinsically link the development of complementary on-farm activities to the on-going processes of social and economic transformation confronting EU rural areas. The research will be co-ordinated and carried out by leading specialists in rural policy from the European research community. The selection of farming regions in sub-arctic, temperate and Mediterranean Europe for empirical analysis explicitly recognises the considerable variety of conditions under which farming is carried out in the EU-15, and the consequent need for EU and national agricultural diversification policy to be sensitive to such local situations. IDEAS is primarily concerned with how farm businesses and institutional agencies sustain innovative diversification practice through harnessing entrepreneurial activity in specific localities. Using detailed farm surveys, intensive case histories of the innovative diversification experience of selected farm households, and critical questioning of local and regional policy makers responsible for diversification, IDEAS will:
- clarify understandin how innovative significant on-farm diversification has become a significant economic activity within the context of four EU localities;
- show how entrepreneurial farmers and agencies have used innovative significant on-farm diversification to improve the economic fortunes of farm businesses and consequently their prospects for sustained growth;
- demonstrate the involvement of local institutions in supporting these activities through the removal of obstacles and barriers to the implementation of successful diversification.
IDEAS will therefore not only address contemporary scientific debates over agricultural sustainability but will also contribute significantly to the political dialogue led by the European Commission on the future of EU rural areas under a reformed CAP.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Coordinator
WC1H 0AP LONDON
United Kingdom
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