This report contains the proceedings of the workshop on Information Needs for the Analysis of Farm Household Income Issues.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been supporting the incomes of the European Union's agricultural community for half a century. Despite this, there is still no official system in place to track the economic wellbeing of farmers and their families. This book examines the evidence on the overall wealth of farming households, and concludes that in nearly all member states, they are not generally a poor sector of society, with disposable incomes that are similar to, or exceed, the national average.

This book explores the policy implications of growing pressures for economic adjustment in the agricultural sectors of developed countries. The primary focus is on Europe and North America, but adjustment policies in other developed countries are discussed. Some chapters are based on an international workshop at Imperial College, London in October 2003 and an international symposium in Philadelphia in the spring of 2004.

The first part of this report provides an overview of the income situation of farm households and the influence of agricultural and of tax and social security policies on them. The second part investigates more specifically how efficient some of the most commonly used policy interventions are.

Increased investment in agriculture and adequate incentives to farmers are required to meet this global challenge.