Semi-subsistence farming: An elusive concept posing thorny policy questions

The massive expansion of semi-subsistence farming in the EU after the Eastern enlargements poses a real challenge to rural development. The problems of semi- subsistence farms are low cash incomes and incidence of poverty, sub-optimal use of land and labour, a lack of capital and poor contribution to rural growth. However, they play an important welfare function in some rural areas in Europe; they manage more than eleven million hectares of agricultural land and deliver ecosystem services. The Common Agricultural Policy will have to accommodate this now widespread production system, through existing or new policy packages. Particularly important is support for commercialisation to incentivise and smooth the transition to commercial agriculture, and agri-environmental payments to compensate the semi-subsistence farmers for the provision of ecosystem services.