Organic farming development strategies / action plans in Europe: taking stock, looking ahead and its determinants

Background: In the last decade action plans for the development of organic agriculture have become the norm across Europe and even at the European level. These action plans are to coordinate sector development and propose a vision of organic agriculture as well as they are to provide a stakeholder forum. Exercises to develop such plans as well as resulting documents greatly differ. Also, their impact on the sector greatly varies.

Aim: This work aims to analyse and compare organic action plans across countries and subnational regions and across time. The output will be a reconstruction of the development of the policy frame and discourse around organic farming in different countries and regions and a cross-evaluation of process-based criteria for the development of the sector and instruments in relation to their success.