Overview on Maize cultivation in the EU

Hello, my name is Sébastien Abis, I am the director of the DEMETER association and a research scientist at IRIS.

Today I am in Poland at the European Corn Congress. This is a good opportunity to recall that the European Union is a great agricultural power, a power in the production of cereals, because Europe is strong thanks to its 27 Member States and has been able to develop agricultural production in quantitative terms, while ensuring high quality agriculture and food, with a large diversity and complementarity of member countries.

Today, this European agricultural power must, in addition to economic and food aspects, make additional commitments in the field of climate and environment, because agriculture is also supposed to enable us to implement the assumptions of the green deal and carbon neutrality.
We must also bear in mind the geopolitical dimension, because the international context, with more people on the planet, with more ambitions of many countries to push their strategic approach through agriculture, reminds us that Europe must remain cohesive, united and have a vision of agriculture that allows combining social, environmental and economic efficiency with a geopolitical vision.

Anyway, in recent months, the war in Ukraine has been encouraging Europe and its member states to solidarity and unity, despite their experiences and diversity.

And we certainly need agriculture, different kinds of agriculture, European farming systems that complement and enrich each other.

Europe, for example, when it comes to maize, accounts for only 5% of world production and could produce more in the future.

Anyway, in recent years Poland has increased its share in European production, and the situation in Ukraine or Brazil means that Europe certainly should not reduce its production, but on the contrary, try to maintain it and even increase it in the coming years, not forgetting water management, which will also be an important topic for European agricultural systems in the near future.