"Implementation Dynamics and Environmental Impact of the Common Agricultural Policy in Maramureș County, Romania "

The Common Agricultural Policy is focused on the environment increasingly degraded by intensive agriculture. The aim of the study is to analyse the effectiveness of the measures implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy in Maramureș County, Romania during the reference period 2007-2023. This research monitored the intervention logic for the payments made in relation to environmental benefits. The effectiveness of this policy was evaluated by processing primary data collected by conducting a survey and getting answers from 350 respondents, most of them farmers, but also representatives of the local public administrations or agricultural institutions in the county. Results show large gaps between the objectives set by the policy and the actual benefits declared by respondents in the study area. Following the introduction of the greening scheme, farmers in Maramureș county reported little change in farming practices as a result of its implementation. Moreover, farmers have incurred low costs for the implementation of greening measures, resulting in an unfair cost-benefit outcome. These results make it necessary to reduce the arable area to a lower incidence limit for the greening scheme in order to address a larger number of farmers and bring out the need to redefine voluntary environmental measures, with more demanding requirements to bring major environmental benefits. The main change that should be made concerns the removal of more measure-specific requirements to avoid double funding. Other changes relate to the inclusion of more complex requirements for measure 10 - agri-environment and measure 13 addressing areas facing constraints. Currently, the requirements are designed to conserve farming practices, not to generate additional environmental benefits. This study can be a solid starting point for extending the research to the county level or replicating the study in other regions.