A comparative analysis on intensification and extensification in mediterranean agriculture: dilemmas for LFAs policy

Despite the low degree of production intensification relatively to northern countries, rising overall trends in the intensification process are apparent in the plains of the lowland of Mediterranean countries, following the extensification (in the sense of abandonment of traditional/extensive production systems) in mountainous communes. This development, which implied a number of other changes in the Mediterranean farm sectors and was strengthened by the CAP, has had serious negative implications for the environment of both the uplands and the lowlands. Current trends in the CAP point to an increasingly restrictive farm price policy which, in some cases, is likely to affect negatively production and incomes. This could lead to further abandonment of production in certain less-favoured zones of particular nature conservation value, with severe negative impacts on biodiversity and landscapes. On the other hand, measures which are aimed to combat abandoment and marginalization in mountainous communes (e.g. the sheepmeat regime or the LFAs Regulation) have often led to overexploitation of marginal land with equally negative environmental implications. This paper attempts to highlight the contradictions and dilemmas which agricultural policy faces in trying to achieve less intensive agricultural practices and to promote and preserve extensive ones, mainly in mountainous-LFAs-of the Mediterranean region. Due to the limited statistical information available, the analysis is qualitative and based mostly on a review of the literature rather than on original research. The conclusions make clear what policy makers have increasingly come to recognise (as is reflected in recent proposals for reform in the CAP): that such policy conflicts can be resolved if there is more focused support to specific parts of LFAs and if environmental conditions are attached to any policy measure. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.