Assessing the risk of farmland abandonment in the EU

An expert panel of 12 European scientists in fields related to land abandonment (bio-physical / land suitability, farm structure, farm economics, land market, regional development, socio and economic factors in rural areas) and representative for the EU27 Member States were tasked to identify main drivers of farmland abandonment in Europe. Two sets of criteria for assessing the risk of farmland abandonment have been suggested as follow: For low farm stability and viability: This was estimated through drivers on ‘low farm income’ (D2), ‘lack of investments on the farm’ (D3), ‘farm-holder’s age’ (D4), ‘farm manager qualifications’ (D5), ‘low farm size’ (D8), ‘commitments taken by farmers in specific management scheme’ (D9). For negative regional context: This was estimated through indicators on ‘weak land market’ (D1), ‘low population density and remoteness’ from market opportunities and services (D7). Each of these drivers was calculated individually; an assessment was done to provide relevance and robustness of results, corresponding maps were produced.