Farmers' views and attitudes towards the reformed common agricultural policy in Greece

Abstract

The agricultural industry constitutes a productive sector that plays a vital role in the financial, social and ecological balance of any agricultural area. Therefore, the support for an intended complete development of agriculture is-and it will always be-a primary duty of all governments worldwide. In the present study, the results of a research, which was conducted in five Greek Prefectures (Chania, Korinthia, Trikala, Grevena and Evros) during the period 2005-2007, focused on the assessment of farmers' views towards the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are presented. In particular, the aims of the research focused on the ways by which farmers may be informed and the level of their knowledge with regard to the CAP, farmers' views and attitudes towards the new measures suggested by the CAP, the advantages and disadvantages of the present productive system and finally, the contemporary trends of agriculture and some farmers' attributes. The research was conducted by use of questionnaires which were filled out by each farmer during an interview. In total, 1,200 farmers were interviewed (300 in every prefecture, except Trikala and Grevena where the sample included 150 farmers each). The questionnaire consisted of 41 specific questions in total. The data processing was carried out by using the SPSS statistical package. The research led to the conclusion that farmers' awareness with regard to the CAP, its revision, the procedures which are foreseen by it and the benefits which can result from its provisions for farmers' income was restricted. Therefore, it is obvious that there is a need for applying more effective methods with regard to the circulation of relevant information. For these methods, some proposals have been presented. An attempt is undertaken to present certain proposals aiming at further improvement. © 2009 WIT Press.