Italy: 100% mortgages for farmers to buy land
In Italy, the Banca delle Terre Agricole was established by law in July 2016. It maintains an inventory of all agricultural land coming available in Italy through either land abandonment or retirement.
The database, which is open to the public to access, lists the location, land type and infrastructure on it, as well as the conditions for the sale of each land parcel.
The Banca delle Terre Agricole is run by the ISMEA (Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market).
Bidders must register in advance of a land auction and be invited to bid by ISMEA. The online auction of land is managed by setting a starting price from which bids can begin.
Young agricultural entrepreneurs can access a 100% mortgage for the value of the land, based on the starting price.
A 10% security deposit must be paid. If the land is sold for higher than the starting price, then the buyer must cover the additional cost. The mortgage is available for up to a 30-year term.
Eligible young farmers must have set up in the past five years.
Payments
Under the current CAP 2023-2027, Italian young farmers can also get a €83.50/ha top up payment, up to 90ha for five years.
There are also regional establishment grants for young farmers.
Netherlands: flat rate payments and guilds
There are several succession-related schemes and networks in the Netherlands.
Landgilde is aimed at connecting young and older farmers who are not related to each other. It takes its inspiration from the traditional guild format where budding craftspeople would learn their trade from experienced elders. Landgilde matches young and inexperienced farmers and offers advice on going into business together.
Advertising on the matching site costs €50-€75, but Landgilde also offers research services and a more intensive broker-style service costing up to €500-€750.
It also offers qualified advisers to guide farmers on setting up business together.
Also in the Netherlands, the Boer zoekt Boer (Farmer wants Farmer) website was set up specifically for non-family business takeovers, by the Dutch Agricultural Youth Contact (NAJK) and its project partners.
Young farmers in the Netherlands receive a flat-rate farm payment of €2,800. The payment, subject to a business plan submission, is paid annually for five years regardless of farm size.
Lump sum young farmer payments are only used by three European member states: France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Austria:
promotion of new entrants
Perspektive Landwirtschaft is a non-profit organisation which promotes the transfer of farms outside the family and new entrants into farming in Austria.
It says: “A transfer within the family is not always possible, for example, because the next generation cannot, does not want to, is not supposed to take over the business, or because there are no descendants. In such cases, a transfer outside the family can offer a perspective for preserving and further developing the life’s work of the previous managers.”
Membership costs €70-€120 per year and offers members advertising on its platform, and free and discounted events.
Payments
Eligible young Austrian farmers can claim a 25% top-up on the national average farm payment rate per hectare, for up to five years and up to a maximum of 40ha of land.
France: restricted land sales and farm transfer supports
In France, the Répertoire Départ Installation (RDI) is a national farm transfer website, led by advisers from the French Chambers of Agriculture.
It offers advertising on its website, and between 2019 and 2023, it recorded 148 public advertisements of farms available and 422 farmers seeking farms.
Among them were 43 mixed farms, 37 livestock-rearing farms, 13 tillage-only farms and 56 specialist horticulture farms. Typically, there are 52 applicants per farm advertised.
A 2020 study found that cattle farming was the sector most at risk of disappearing in France since it attracts fewer new farmers and has the lowest farm replacement rate.
Land sales
France also has one of the most regulated farmland markets in the European Union. The Société d’Aménagement Foncier et d’Etablissement Rural (SAFER) system restricts who farmland can be sold to.
A SAFER agency in every ‘départment’ or state of France monitors farmland sales and acts as an intermediary in land sales, choosing who to sell the land to. In some cases, the SAFER may buy the land itself and seek submissions from prospective buyers.
Typically, young new entrant farmers and family farms wishing to expand are given priority to buy, but organic farmers are also prioritised since 2014.
Young trained French farmers can also claim a Dotation Jeunes Agriculteurs (DJA) payment. Paid over five years, the average DJI paid in 2021 was over €32,000 but now vary by region from €14,000 to €47,000.
Germany: €44/ha top-up and matching successors
The website hofgründer.de was set up in 2008 as Germany’s first platform for non-family farm succession.
It offers a ‘farm exchange’ platform to advertise farmland available to transfer, and people who want to set up on farms.
It has a farm transfer consulting service with confidential support to both those transferring farms and those seeking a farm. It also runs seminars and continuing education for consultants.
Among the farms currently advertised are a 130ha dairy farm with an award-winning cheese production business, a 19ha farm with an old mill and a meat processing plant, and an 850ha dairy farm with 350 cows and 160 followers.
Among those seeking farms are a farming couple with a small suckler herd looking to expand and a pair of farm managers who are currently managing over 1,000ha of conventional and organic land between them.
In the current CAP, Germany’s young farmers (under 40) receive additional support of about €44/ha for a maximum of five years and up to a maximum of 90ha of agricultural land.
New entrant young farmers also get what’s known as an “establishment premium”, similar to installation aid.
Italy: 100% mortgages for farmers to buy land
In Italy, the Banca delle Terre Agricole was established by law in July 2016. It maintains an inventory of all agricultural land coming available in Italy through either land abandonment or retirement.
The database, which is open to the public to access, lists the location, land type and infrastructure on it, as well as the conditions for the sale of each land parcel.
The Banca delle Terre Agricole is run by the ISMEA (Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market).
Bidders must register in advance of a land auction and be invited to bid by ISMEA. The online auction of land is managed by setting a starting price from which bids can begin.
Young agricultural entrepreneurs can access a 100% mortgage for the value of the land, based on the starting price.
A 10% security deposit must be paid. If the land is sold for higher than the starting price, then the buyer must cover the additional cost. The mortgage is available for up to a 30-year term.
Eligible young farmers must have set up in the past five years.
Payments
Under the current CAP 2023-2027, Italian young farmers can also get a €83.50/ha top up payment, up to 90ha for five years.
There are also regional establishment grants for young farmers.
Netherlands: flat rate payments and guilds
There are several succession-related schemes and networks in the Netherlands.
Landgilde is aimed at connecting young and older farmers who are not related to each other. It takes its inspiration from the traditional guild format where budding craftspeople would learn their trade from experienced elders. Landgilde matches young and inexperienced farmers and offers advice on going into business together.
Advertising on the matching site costs €50-€75, but Landgilde also offers research services and a more intensive broker-style service costing up to €500-€750.
It also offers qualified advisers to guide farmers on setting up business together.
Also in the Netherlands, the Boer zoekt Boer (Farmer wants Farmer) website was set up specifically for non-family business takeovers, by the Dutch Agricultural Youth Contact (NAJK) and its project partners.
Young farmers in the Netherlands receive a flat-rate farm payment of €2,800. The payment, subject to a business plan submission, is paid annually for five years regardless of farm size.
Lump sum young farmer payments are only used by three European member states: France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Austria:
promotion of new entrants
Perspektive Landwirtschaft is a non-profit organisation which promotes the transfer of farms outside the family and new entrants into farming in Austria.
It says: “A transfer within the family is not always possible, for example, because the next generation cannot, does not want to, is not supposed to take over the business, or because there are no descendants. In such cases, a transfer outside the family can offer a perspective for preserving and further developing the life’s work of the previous managers.”
Membership costs €70-€120 per year and offers members advertising on its platform, and free and discounted events.
Payments
Eligible young Austrian farmers can claim a 25% top-up on the national average farm payment rate per hectare, for up to five years and up to a maximum of 40ha of land.
France: restricted land sales and farm transfer supports
In France, the Répertoire Départ Installation (RDI) is a national farm transfer website, led by advisers from the French Chambers of Agriculture.
It offers advertising on its website, and between 2019 and 2023, it recorded 148 public advertisements of farms available and 422 farmers seeking farms.
Among them were 43 mixed farms, 37 livestock-rearing farms, 13 tillage-only farms and 56 specialist horticulture farms. Typically, there are 52 applicants per farm advertised.
A 2020 study found that cattle farming was the sector most at risk of disappearing in France since it attracts fewer new farmers and has the lowest farm replacement rate.
Land sales
France also has one of the most regulated farmland markets in the European Union. The Société d’Aménagement Foncier et d’Etablissement Rural (SAFER) system restricts who farmland can be sold to.
A SAFER agency in every ‘départment’ or state of France monitors farmland sales and acts as an intermediary in land sales, choosing who to sell the land to. In some cases, the SAFER may buy the land itself and seek submissions from prospective buyers.
Typically, young new entrant farmers and family farms wishing to expand are given priority to buy, but organic farmers are also prioritised since 2014.
Young trained French farmers can also claim a Dotation Jeunes Agriculteurs (DJA) payment. Paid over five years, the average DJI paid in 2021 was over €32,000 but now vary by region from €14,000 to €47,000.
Germany: €44/ha top-up and matching successors
The website hofgründer.de was set up in 2008 as Germany’s first platform for non-family farm succession.
It offers a ‘farm exchange’ platform to advertise farmland available to transfer, and people who want to set up on farms.
It has a farm transfer consulting service with confidential support to both those transferring farms and those seeking a farm. It also runs seminars and continuing education for consultants.
Among the farms currently advertised are a 130ha dairy farm with an award-winning cheese production business, a 19ha farm with an old mill and a meat processing plant, and an 850ha dairy farm with 350 cows and 160 followers.
Among those seeking farms are a farming couple with a small suckler herd looking to expand and a pair of farm managers who are currently managing over 1,000ha of conventional and organic land between them.
In the current CAP, Germany’s young farmers (under 40) receive additional support of about €44/ha for a maximum of five years and up to a maximum of 90ha of agricultural land.
New entrant young farmers also get what’s known as an “establishment premium”, similar to installation aid.
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