Direct income transfers for the agricultural sector in less-favoured areas (DIT-LFA)

Abstract

The subject of our article, DIT, is the special type of direct income transfer applied by the EC in order to improve the income situation of farm holdings in less-favoured areas (LFA) of the Community. (DIT) is intended as a safeguard for agricultural activities, a means of maintaining a minimum density of population, and a way of conserving and managing the landscape in these areas. The considerable regional variation in the size of the subsidy per farm, together with considerations regarding the conception of this measure, bring the distributive effects of DIT-LFA to the fore. If regional conditions are compared with the distribution of subsidies, it becomes obvious that the payments are not centred on farm holdings and regions of low income. In fact, the contribution made by DIT is, at best, of only marginal importance in reducing emigration from less-favoured areas, and although income transfers in the form of DIT-LFA are definitely connected with agricultural land-use, they do not necessarily facilitate the conservation and management of the landscape. If DIT-LFA are intended as a means of improving the incomes of low-income farm holdings, then we regard it as imperative that the entire concept of this measure be reconsidered.