An integrated methodology for the evaluation of organic farming support scheme environ-mental effects supported by Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Summary

Within the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) framework, Member States are obliged to evaluate their respective Rural Development Plans (RDPs). The aim of the evaluation is to verify the efficiency and efficacy of the implementation process, particularly as concerns the objective of integration of environmental issues in the agricultural policy. In this context, a more comprehensive evaluation methodol-ogy is needed. Particularly, the spatial structure of the territory the intervention targets must be inte-grated in the analysis. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been widely considered a useful tool to encompass the spatial aspects in the evaluation process. GIS, in fact, are able to perform spatial analysis as well as estimate quantitative indicators referred to different geographic frames. In this short paper we propose a GIS-based analysis of the effects of organic farming aid scheme implementation and we report the results of an application of such a methodology.