Portuguese Agriculture

No. 53 MAY 2015

After the accession of Portugal to the European Community, the developments in Portuguese agriculture were mainly influenced by the changes in the common agricultural policy. In the early years after accession to the EEC, structural adjustments and technological changes resulted in very favourable development in the economic results of the national agricultural sector and the viability and competitiveness of Portuguese farms. From the mid-1990s, sector and business economic results in Portuguese agriculture developed unfavourably. There are numerous factors that will influence the future development of Portuguese agriculture. Among them, it is important to highlight the economic efficiency and environmental sustainability performance of the agricultural production systems used over the next decade, which will depend on the consistency of the application of the different measures and actions that are part of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.