ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF DIRECT SUPPORT FOR AGRICULTURE IN LITHUANIA

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the most important and largest branches of material production, which meets the needs of the population, produces food products, supplies raw materials to industry. In agriculture, the realization of economic, social, and environmental functions is a complex process. With this in mind, national governments, and the European Union, in particular, are shaping agricultural and country development policies that focus on the economic, social, and environmental objectives of agricultural improvement. The common agricultural policy aims to maintain sustainability and diversify throughout the European Union, to provide consumers affordable food and a decent standard of living for farmers in the European Union, through direct and compensatory payments. Direct support promotes the growth of farmers' farm incomes, reduces unemployment, competitiveness, biodiversity conservation, landscape management, and supports a vibrant countryside community. In Lithuania methods of statistical data analysis, grouping, and graphical representations are used to assess economic, social, and environmental effects. In pursuit of this objective, we can conclude that in the economic field: CAP measures contribute to maintaining farm incomes and have a positive effect on farmers' incomes, in the social field: support farming in less-favored areas has only partially paid off, in the environmental field: direct support to agriculture farming “Organic Farming” has only a partially positive environmental effect. As the area of organic farms decreases, the efficiency of the measure “Organic Farming” also decreases.