Agriculture wants to make itself fit for the future with “Vision 2028+”

Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (VP) announced on Tuesday his “vision 2028+”. It is a strategic plan with extensive goals and proposals for Austrian agriculture to meet the current and future challenges of the industry. These include steps to strengthen agricultural entrepreneurship, the further development of quality production as well as environmental measures and efforts to digitize farms.

Austrian farmers are increasingly confronted with rising production costs, uncertainties caused by climate change and bureaucratic burdens due to the EU’s Green Deal, Totschnig outlined the situation at a press conference. At the same time, consumers’ desire for inexpensive food is exerting additional pressure. Farmers must therefore be given new perspectives and offered a stable political framework, said the politician.

Specifically, the 140-page “vision 2028+” outlines seven fields of action, within which objectives and potential measures for the farming community are outlined. For the “strengthening of agricultural entrepreneurship”, tax improvements to facilitate cooperation are proposed. According to Totschnig, the aim is to secure smaller operational structures with “viable business models”. This requires diversification and inter-company cooperation. The focus should also be on the role of women, who are an important support for agricultural businesses.

In addition, quality programs for food – such as those offered by AMA Marketing with its seal of quality – are to be expanded and the benefits of these programs are to be communicated to farmers in a targeted manner. The aim is to produce “natural foods in a sustainable and climate-friendly manner”. In this area, origin labeling for food is also planned “in all marketing areas”, including the catering industry.

New paths are to be taken in the area of ​​digitalization. Agricultural processes are to be optimized through appropriate measures and administrative effort – for example in the processing of subsidies – reduced, according to the strategy paper. Farmers must be helped to combat “the ever-increasing flood of data” and to save on fixed costs, said the minister.

The strategic plan also provides for measures in the context of climate change. Financial incentives for “ecosystem services” are laid down, as is the goal of protecting soil and promoting renewable energies in such a way that the “production basis is secured” and “climate and biodiversity protection is strengthened.” Another example is the “options for value creation on the farm,” which include educational opportunities for farmers.

The “vision According to Totschnig, “2028+” is the result of a months-long exchange process in which a good 3,000 people – including farmers, scientists and representatives of various interest groups – were involved directly and through surveys. When and to what extent the 170 measures in total could be implemented is an open question. The report speaks of a time horizon of ten years, and Totschnig himself says he wants to set up his own implementation group before the summer. He is optimistic that the strategy will actually find its way into practice – even after the National Council elections in the autumn, especially since representatives of all parliamentary groups were involved, Totschnig said.

Boku Professor Marianne Penker, a member of the project’s scientific advisory board, argued that the results should be “taken very seriously”. What is needed now is a “cross-departmental and cross-sectoral” discussion that reaches into the energy industry, tourism, but also environmental protection organizations, so that the “vision 2028+” could provide orientation “beyond the elections”. There is now “a lot of work” ahead, added project manager Josef Plank.

The results were welcomed by the Chamber of Agriculture (LKÖ), the ÖVP Farmers’ Association and the Bio Austria association, which praised the “firm anchoring” of organic food in the plan’s objectives. For the environmental protection organization Global 2000, which was involved in the creation of the plan as a stakeholder, the results in the area of ​​climate and environment are “inadequate”, as stated in a press release.