Irish communities that have managed to halt rural decline will provide lessons to make future policies such as CAP more efficient, participants in the EU-funded Ruralization project have told the Irish Farmers Journal.
The project began this month and participants held their first meeting in Barcelona two weeks ago.
The €5.9m, four-year research brings together 18 academic and rural community organisations in 12 European countries to conduct case studies and compare vibrant rural areas with those facing more difficult prospects. "We'll look at very promising areas in contrast to those that have not been as successful," said geographer Maura Farrell from NUI Galway, one of the two Irish partners in the project.
Ruralisation as counterforce to current processes of urbanisation
The brief given to researchers is that "what is needed is a novel perspective for rural areas, a perspective that triggers a process of ruralisation as counterforce to current processes of urbanisation", said Anne Kinsella of Teagasc, the other Irish participating organisation.
Two particular areas of interest in the project are access to land and the role of newcomers to rural areas.
"One of the partners in France works to buy land that is then leased out to young farmers to increase their holding or give them a foothold in farming," said Farrell, and lessons could be learned for Ireland where there is very little turnover of land.
Generational renewal
The European Commission pointed out to researchers that it had spent €9.6bn in specific aid to young farmers between 2007 and 2020, but the European Court of Auditors had been critical of the results shown in terms of generational renewal.
There are also interesting prospects to analyse the role of new residents who move to rural areas, which has not been studied much in Ireland, Farrell added.
Ireland's pioneering role in developing locally-led agri-environmental schemes such as the Burren Programme could in turn help other countries.
Innovative use of EU funds
On a fact-finding mission earlier this year to evaluate the impact of CAP on generational renewal, Janet Dwyer, professor of rural policy at the University of Gloucestershire in the UK said that she had selected Ireland among seven countries to visit because of its innovative use of available EU funding.
EU projections indicate that population will grow by 12% in cities, but decline by 7% in rural regions during the current CAP between 2014 and 2020. Forecasts for Ireland are different, with the CSO expecting population to grow in rural areas between 2011 and 2031 – albeit slower than in cities, and potentially declining the west and border regions.
Up to €100,000 young farmers' installation grants in next CAP – Hogan