Problem
Counter-productive agricultural subsidies
Other Names:
Perverse farming subsidiesOver-subsidized agriculture
Excessive subsidies to farmers
Over-dependence on farm subsidies
Domestic agricultural price difficulties
Incidence:
Agricultural subsidies have been heavily criticized for years and recently have been identified by the World Trade Organization as needing reform.
Agriculture in the European Union (EU) is driven largely by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a price support mechanism that consumes nearly half of the budget of the EU. Most of the 40 billion euro annual cost comprises direct payments to farmers, maintaining EU prices above those of the global market by taxing imports, subsidising exports and paying for food storage when no market is available. Farmers also find the current CAP system to be flawed. As an example, the system of headage payments (a payment for each sheep) resulted in overstocking followed by price collapses, poorer quality animals and environmental degradation. The high stock density could have also favoured the spread of foot and mouth disease.
Broader Problems:
Subsidized natural resource consumptionCounter-productive price supports and subsidiesInappropriate government intervention in agricultureProtectionism in agriculture and the food production industries Narrower Problems:
Inappropriate irrigation subsidiesInappropriate agricultural subsidies for chemicalized farmingInappropriate agricultural subsidies for livestock production Related Problems:
Inappropriate modernization of agriculture Aggravates:
Agricultural overproductionCultivation of illegal drugsDeliberately unused farm fieldsExcessive reliance on mineral fertilizersDestruction of surplus agricultural produceImbalance between agricultural exports and importsUnsustainable short-term improvements in agricultural productivityWater wars Strategies:
Subsidizing agricultural productionReducing farm subsidiesDeveloping agricultureProtecting agriculture Subject(s):
Agriculture, Fisheries → Agriculture??Agriculture, Fisheries → Farming??
Amenities → Households??
Commerce → Finance??
Commerce → Purchasing, supplying??
Economics → Productivity??
Societal Problems → Dependence??
Societal Problems → Maltreatment??
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
E: Emanations of other problems Date of last update
21.02.2020 – 19:26 CET