Policy integration of greening and the agri-environmental programs: lessons to learn from the German implementation

We analyse the net impacts and the coherence of the ecological focus area (EFA) in Germany. The empirical results show that farmers prefer productive EFA options and refrain from those EFA options taht focus on for biodiversity. Empirical results show that simplicity is an important argument for the selection of EFA options, and that larger farms tend to use fallow more frequently. In some German federal states, farmers can combine EFA with Agri Environmental and Climate measures (AECM). However, this options is not predominantly selected. Finally, we provide suggestions to raise the effectiveness of the EFA regulation through better policy integration and simplification.