A multicriteria model for the assessment of rural development plans in Greece

• Published in: Land use policy 2014-05, Vol.38, p.1-8
• Main Authors: Bournaris, Thomas, Moulogianni, Christina, Manos, Basil
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural development. Rural area planning; Agricultural policy; Agriculture; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Cost; Demographics; European Union; Farmers; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General agroecology. Agricultural and farming systems. Agricultural development. Rural area planning. Landscaping; General agronomy. Plant production; Generalities. Agricultural and farming systems. Agricultural development; Greece; Impact assessment; Knowledge Brokerage Approach; Land; Multicriteria mathematical programming; Population; Population aging; Rural development; Rural population
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.10.008

•Focus on impact assessment of “Setting up Young Farmers” RDP measure in regional scale.•A set of support modules which are linked to the Impact Assessment process was implemented.•Aims to support future policies based on an improved understanding of socio-economic mechanisms of change in rural areas.•“Setting up young farmers” RDP measure achieved its goals to transfer land to young, trained farmers. In the last decades rural communities face the problems of ageing of population, high share of elder farmers and imbalanced distribution of farmers across age classes. The Rural Development Plans (RDPs) of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in European Union (EU) are the policy instruments that affect agriculture and the people living in rural areas. The RDP measure “Setting up Young Farmers” aims to fight the demographic problems of these areas. This study is an attempt to highlight the role and the impacts of RDPs and especially of the “Setting up Young Farmers” measure in the prefecture of Thessaloniki in Greece. To this end, a multicriteria mathematical programming model was implemented. This methodology was chosen using the Knowledge Brokerage Approach in the context of the LIAISE project, which proposes a set of support modules that are linked to the impact assessment process with a final goal to support future policies and design. The results showed that the “Setting up young farmers” measure achieved its goals to transfer land to young, trained farmers, to offset the set-up costs faced by young people when establishing themselves in farming.