European Grassland Farming: Future Prospects

The paper reviews recent policy reforms and current pressures in Europe, including the CAP reforms, GATT considerations, the potential for European and CIS integration, and the environmental pressures on policy. The possible consequences of these reforms are then considered, illustrated by estimates of European grassland product market conditions in the event of multilateral free trade in form products. Finally, the implications of these trends for farming practices are considered, with special reference to the UK and European Community. In spite of rather glacial progress towards trade liberalisation, Che conclusions are: i) that future· strategic planning at both national and farm levels should be based on competitive free trade world prices; ii) that production practices in Europe will tend to become more heterogeneous, more extensive and more mixed than in the recent past; iii) Closer integration between production and the requirements of the final consumer is inevitable. In the future, research, development and management practices will all need to pay much closer attention to both consumer requirements and to the competition offered by suppliers in the rest of the world than in the past in these traditional importing countries.