Agriculture and the Evolution of Agricultural Policies in the Mediterranean Partner Countries: Putting a Retrospective Overview in Context with Future Prospects

This chapter provides a brief description of the main characteristics of the agricultural sectors in the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs), together with a short retrospective overview of the evolution of national agro-food policies, in an attempt to highlight the changes that occurred in the agro-food policy agendas in recent years. In this respect, some insights to the future evolution of natural agricultural policies are also made. Although agriculture constitutes a crucial element of the national economies of MPCs and remains a major source of employment in most cases, MPCs are faced with low self-sufficiency rates even for staple food and a large reliance on food imports. In the past, national agro-food policy agendas have traditionally relied on intervention, subsidisation and protectionism in order to protect domestic produce, but their effectiveness on increasing agricultural productivity and reducing rural poverty remained questionable. During the last decades, most MPCs gradually began adopting a reform process that resulted in a more liberalised agricultural sector. These structural adjustments have indeed led to decreased levels of support, but evidence thus far, does not show compelling progress in productivity/competitiveness which is a necessity in order to increase food security and alleviate poverty in rural areas. Today, the EU is called to play a critical role in assisting the reform process. The EU would need to strengthen its relations with the region and introduce mechanisms to support the modernisation of agricultural sectors. Specific policies for assisting cooperation in research and rural development should become a priority.