Capacité de l'agriculture européenne et son avenir

Science and technology have already modified farming considerably. With the help of 100,000 research workers all over the world they are remodelling the future of farming along the lines described by the writer in .Europe's Green Future. The farming world of tomorrow will again change completely, doubling the yield of vegetable and animal production during the coming decades. But commercial outlets will not increase in the same proportions. The home market can hardly increase. European farming is not competitive on the world market. In the long term, the developing countries do not count as buyers. Moreover, free,, long-term food aid is not in the interests of these countries. Consequently, European agricultural capacity must not be increased, but, on the contrary, be reduced gradually by freezing the land under cultivation and even by reducing livestock. This is why farms and regions which are unprofitable should no longer be subsidized. The structural change in European farming that has long been necessary should be speeded up by a system of « pressures and encouragements ». For this reason financial assistance to retiring farmers is indispensable. Because of technical progress the prospects for farmers running modern farms in better production areas remain favourable.