Research

Intervention 73-01, “Investments in Agricultural Production,” is one of the key measures of Austria’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027. With a funding volume of approximately EUR 650 million Euros and a total of 13 eligible funding categories, it supports agricultural holdings in making investments aimed at enhancing farm competitiveness, modernization, and environmental, climate, and animal welfare objectives. In the course of preparing the CAP Strategic Plan, several national needs were identified that are to be addressed through investment support. These include increasing the productivity of agricultural holdings, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production and in rural areas, and improving animal welfare. Previous evaluations and scientific analyses of the measure have focused on economic aspects and structural developments in agriculture related to investment support. Environmental, climate-related, and social impacts, by contrast, have so far been considered only to a limited extent and mostly indirectly. Against this background, the objective of the planned scientific study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the measure “Investments in Agricultural Production.” First, a structural analysis and farm typology will be used to identify and describe key structures, trends, and farm types associated with the measure, as well as to examine qualitative aspects and the advisory context related to it. Building on this, a counterfactual analysis of the measure’s primary economic effects will be carried out, together with an analysis of its secondary impacts on the environment, climate, and animal welfare. Finally, the findings will be brought together in a decision-oriented, holistic assessment, from which recommendations for the further development of the measure will be derived.

The project collects data on the economic situation of large-scale forests in Austria (forest estates >500 hectares) during the specified period and sets out the current trends in this regard. To this end, operational accounts are drawn up, along with individual and cross-operational analyses (such as standardised mean value calculations (nominal and real) and panel calculations for the overall average and the nine groups in total for the final evaluation, as well as the preparation of individual profit and loss accounts (benchmark comparison) and ‘rankings’ for approximately 100 reporting forest enterprises. The aggregated key figures provide an important empirical data basis for stakeholders in forestry policy as well as for forestry economics research and teaching at BOKU University, and are incorporated, amongst other things, into the annual Forest Report published by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management.

In this project, selected measures of Austria’s Rural Development Programme LE 14–20 are evaluated. The project thus provides answers to selected evaluation questions as part of reporting on the results of the ex post evaluation of the Rural Development Program (RDP). This ex post evaluation is carried out in order to show stakeholders and the public the achievement of policy objectives, the impacts and results, to increase transparency, and to learn how policy can be improved in the future.