The “Next Generation EU” recovery fund, created in 2020 to help the European Union emerge from the crisis caused by the pandemic with a package of up to €955 billion in investments and loans, has had positive impacts, but is struggling to meet its ambitious goal of transforming the European economy.
Next Generation EU in agriculture
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) — main basis for European aid
La PAC es el principal instrumento de apoyo a agricultores y ganaderos en la UE. Su objetivo es:
- To ensure a reasonable standard of living for farmers.
- Making agriculture more competitive, sustainable and resilient.
- Contribute to environmental and food safety objectives.
What the CAP finances:
- Direct rent payments (basic financial aid per hectare).
- Green payments and eco-schemes for sustainable practices.
- Aid coupled to specific crops or livestock.
- Market measures and price stability.
📌In Spain, the application period for the 2026 CAP is open (until April 2026). It includes support measures such as basic income, payments for young farmers, and eco-schemes.
Next Generation Funds
In addition to the CAP, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (subsidies linked to the Next Generation EU funds) also allocates money to modernize the agricultural sector, especially in innovation and digitalization.
🔹 What types of investments are supported?
- Precision agriculture and 4.0 technologies: sensors, soil moisture sensors, drones, management software, IoT, etc. such as those offered by Plantae.
- Pilot projects and digital solutions to improve traceability and sustainability.
- Reduction in fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions.
✔️ These programs are directly funded by the EU within the post-pandemic recovery plan, and usually require collaboration between farmers, technology companies and innovation groups.
👉 For example, in Spain there are regional and autonomous calls for proposals that finance 4.0 technologies in agriculture with millions of euros available.
Modernization of irrigation systems and green investments
A significant portion of the funding will also go towards improving irrigation efficiency and sustainable water use — something critical in areas such as olive groves:
- The irrigation modernization plan supports investments in sustainable infrastructure and measurement technologies (including soil sensors).
- Spain has received hundreds of millions of euros to modernize irrigation on more than 100,000 hectares, with an environmental focus.
These investments allow for reduced water and energy consumption and provide accurate data for more efficient irrigation and crop management.
In addition to national and European programs:
- In autonomous communities there are specific aid programs to modernize farms (machinery, irrigation, digitalization) that can reach up to €200,000 per farm depending on the conditions.
- There are also programs for supra-regional innovation that fund collective agricultural innovation projects.
Europe’s $955 billion recovery fund struggles to transform economy
In olive groves and vineyards across Spain, sensors and drones funded by Europe's largest recovery fund since the post-war Marshall Plan are collecting soil data to feed artificial intelligence models that will help farmers better manage their crops.
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