The attitudes and views of farmers on the new common agricultural policy and the restructuring of crops : the case of Greece

Abstract

Greek agriculture is today faced with the necessity to adapt a particularly tough, constantly changing international environment. Based on its structural characteristics and in view of the new requirements and directions of rural policy, it is considered essential for suitable measures to be adopted. The purpose of these measures will be to improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector and to maintain the economic and social cohesion of Greek agriculture. This paper presents the results of an empirical study, conducted on a sample of 570 farmers through the use of questionnaires, with the aim of exploring the attitudes and views of farmers from the implementation of the new Common European Agricultural Policy (CAP), their level of satisfaction with Rural Policy bodies in managing the growth of their agricultural holdings, as well as the effectiveness of the various developmental financing programmes. Finally, it examines the impact of the farmers’ demographic and social characteristics on the formulation of their attitudes and views regarding the abovementioned issues. After a series of statistical significance tests, based on the x -test and the correlation 2 coefficient of Spearman’s classes, as appropriate, it was found that only the farmers’ income is correlated, in a statistically significant and negative way, to their satisfaction with the information provided by rural policy bodies. An upgrading of the services provided by rural policy bodies is expected to lead to an improved agricultural income and promote the business-oriented growth of agriculture.