Roles of Small and Semi-subsistence Farms in the EU

Small and semi-subsistence farms (SSFs) in the EU play a number of socio-economic roles. They maintain rural welfare, keep rural areas populated, contribute to the rural non-farm economy, and provide environmental public goods such as attractive landscapes. Particularly in the New Member States and in the poorer regions of the Southern EU-15, one of the most important roles of small and SSFs is supporting social and economic welfare, by acting as a ‘safety net’ for poor families. The disappearance of small and SSFs would often mean increased poverty, losses to the rural non-farm economy, and depopulation, especially in remote areas, and might result in environmental loss. Variation in the importance of small and SSFs across the rural areas in Europe and the complex reality in which small and SSFs are not the only suppliers of ‘joint products’, explain some of the difficulties of designing EU policy for small and SSFs. What appears to be clear is that small farms and SSFs do produce a range of public goods for which, arguably, compensation is justified, and the case for support on welfare grounds is strong. However, the ability of the Common Agricultural Policy budget and its mechanisms to provide effective compensation for the provision of public goods is a matter of some debate.