EU countries can no longer simply show how much they spent on farming. They must prove that their agricultural policy helps the climate, nature, food security and rural areas. But how do you check that? The Tools4CAP project has gathered methods and tools from 27 Member States, is testing them in practice and teaches officials how to use them. A good decision starts with data and conversation, and at the end you can check whether you decide on evidence or on gut feeling.
For years, European farm policy was discussed mainly in terms of money: how much was spent and on what. Today that is no longer enough. The common agricultural policy, or CAP, is not judged only by its spending. Every EU country must prepare its own national CAP strategic plan and show how it contributes to goals on climate, biodiversity, food security and the resilience of rural areas.
That sounds reasonable, but it raises a very practical question: how is a ministry supposed to know whether its ideas work? This takes tools that make it possible to build evidence-based policy and track progress. The trouble is that countries use these tools to very different degrees.
The EU-funded Tools4CAP project, coordinated by Ecorys Brussels NV, is trying to fill that gap. The idea is simple: collect methods that help shape farm policy better, test them in practice and make them available to those who need them.
The project supports the current CAP for 2023-2027 but also looks further ahead. Under the latest proposal, the policy after 2027 would be integrated into national and regional partnership plans. Tools4CAP does not work in a vacuum, either: it is linked to broader EU research on farm-level modelling.
The first step was a publicly accessible inventory of methods and tools used in the 27 Member States or available to policymakers. Such a catalogue is meant to answer three questions: what do we already have, where do these tools work best and what is still missing.
This matters because the new CAP delivery model gives countries more flexibility. That flexibility comes at a price, though: more monitoring and more accountability. So the project prepared a conceptual framework describing the whole CAP policy cycle and a comparative analysis of existing tools. It shows what is worth improving and what can simply be replicated elsewhere. That makes it easier to choose evidence, for example for designing specific interventions or monitoring environmental performance.
The solutions collected were divided into three areas:
Each of these areas concerns a different stage of work on a policy: first calculating, then agreeing, and finally checking what actually happened.
The catalogue alone is only the beginning. The project has moved from mapping tools to practical demonstrations. A series of national case studies called the Replication Lab tests how selected tools perform in real conditions. The demonstrations examine alternative ways of designing and implementing the CAP.
The name captures the idea well: a solution that worked in one place should be possible to repeat elsewhere. The lessons from these tests will feed into guidance and training.
Even the best tool achieves little if nobody knows how to use it. That is why the Tools4CAP Academy was created: a capacity-building programme for ministries, managing authorities, paying agencies and other institutions that govern the CAP. It offers webinars and a toolkit.
The training materials are being translated into at least 16 EU languages and are meant to stay openly available after the project ends. Smaller administrations with limited resources can gain the most from this.
Three main results are in preparation: a capacity-building toolkit, methodological guidelines and a handbook of good practices. The goal is ambitious but concrete. CAP governance is meant to rely more on evidence, comparing countries is meant to become easier, and administrations are meant to be better prepared for the next policy cycle.
Farm policy brings to mind fields, tractors and harvests. Tools4CAP shows, however, that a large part of the work on it happens at a desk: in models, databases and meetings where different sides try to understand each other. If you study economics, data analysis, public administration or agriculture, you can see here how these fields meet in one place.
EU countries now have to prove that their farm policy delivers results for the climate, nature, food and rural areas. The Tools4CAP project collects tools that help with this, tests them in national case studies and teaches officials to use them, in many languages and with materials that will stay available after the work is done.
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