Agricultural Adjustment Programmes: Experience from Bananas, Sugar and Internal EU Agricultural Reform

The EU has extensive experience in designing and implementing agricultural adjustment programmes, whether at home or abroad. This discussion paper seeks to draw the lessons of this experience, analysing programmes in the banana and sugar sectors as well as internal European Union (EU) reforms. A case is made for programmes that are market-led, private sector owned, and responsive to the needs of stakeholders. Six concrete lessons are drawn from the analysis of experience to date: (1) the constraints of working through governments, (2) the importance of insuring that production and trade adjustments are market led, (3) the challenge faced in operationalising the role of the private sector, (4) the difficulties of getting to grips with the challenges faced by smallholder producers, (5) the need to ensure rapid and flexible (responsive) deployment of available assistance, and (6) the need for dedicated financial instruments of support and trade adjustment processes.