CYPRUS
I cultivate a small banana farm of around 500 plants, and I have plans for more seasonal fruits and vegetables in the future.
The power of large agricultural corporate importers over both the markets and the regulatory bodies is a big challenge. Similarly, the power that intermediaries have in stifling profit margins for farmers in both local and other EU markets.
I believe harnessing new technologies and the connective power of cooperatives, as a means to bypass intermediaries, will make small scale sustainable farming viable for local and European market consumption. We can employ collective action in order to make long term environmentally sustainable agriculture viable, primarily for local, and secondarily for other European markets. In an ideal world: small farms would be able to directly compete with large agricultural corporations within the European markets, via some form of pan European cooperation.
For this to happen we need a lessening of bureaucratic processes for economic support plans and accessing markets (procedures for licensing, opening shops, exporting products etc).