Assessing the effect of the CAP on farm innovation adoption. An analysis in two French regions

Literature on innovation adoption mechanism has emphasised the positive effect of Single Farm Payments (SFP) and Rural Development Payments on adoption of new technologies. In this context, the expected process of CAP reforming after 2013 is likely to strengthen the role of innovation in the European Union (EU). The objective of this paper is to identify the determinants of the adoption of future innovation, in particular in connection to past innovation, and to assess the role of agricultural policy in the promotion of innovation adoption. The analysis is applied to two regions (Centre and Midi-Pyrénées) in France. Two separate Count models are developed in order to explain famers’ stated intention concerning different intensities of innovation adoption under two different policy scenarios. Preliminary results highlight that the CAP strongly affects the decision to innovate and the innovation intensity, even if there is no statistical significance for the variable connected to the amount of payments or the level of payment per hectare.