Small is beautiful? Is there a relation between farmed area and the ecological output? - Results from evaluation studies in Germany : paper prepared for presentation at the 172nd EAAE Seminar "Agricultural policy for the environment or environmental policy for agriculture?" ; May 28-29, 2019, Brussels

During the last decades biodiversity in agricultural landscapes was strongly decreasing in the EU and also in Germany. Loss in species often results from loss of habitats as a result of intensification as well as abandonment of agricultural land. This trend occurs despite the promotion of environmentally friendly farming practices in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A common public supposition is that small farms operate more environmentally sensitive. This prejudice is mirrored by the European Commission’s legislative proposals for the new CAP. In recent years we conducted studies in Germany evaluating if there is a linkage between farm size and environmental output. These studies analysed support instruments of the 1st and 2nd pillar, in particularly Greening and agri-environmental and climate measures (AECM). We analysed agricultural land use and triggers for land use change in Germany based on data of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS). We present results for the management of environmental focus areas (EFA), the enrolment of grassland in dark green AECM, the distribution of organic farming and high nature value (HNV) grassland. From our various analyses we can see no evidence that smaller full time family farms behave per se more environmentally sensitive compared to larger farms. We therefore strongly recommend not cofounding aspects of environmental targeting of payments with social or structural considerations.