Organic farming has gained increasing relevance worldwide due to its environmental benefits and its prominent role in sustainable food systems; however, the persistence of organic farms remains uneven across regions, particularly within the European Union. While the number of organic farms has grown overall in the EU, significant exits from organic production highlight the need to better understand the factors shaping farm survival, especially in newer Member States, where organic conversion and maintenance support schemes are often implemented through area-based CAP payments. This study aims to identify the structural and contextual determinants of short-term organic farm persistence in Hungary within a broader European context. Using farm-level data for the period 2020–2023, including Standard Output (SO) indicators, we applied a combined modelling framework based on Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, and Random Forest algorithms to assess the relative importance of economic, structural, and regional variables. The results show that organic farm persistence is primarily driven by structural characteristics such as farm size, economic scale, degree of conversion to organic farming and regional embeddedness, while production specialization and organizational features play a secondary, conditional role. The convergence of results across modelling approaches indicates that survival is shaped by hierarchical structural constraints rather than isolated management decisions. Our findings suggest that policy measures aiming to stabilize and expand the organic sector should move beyond uniform incentives, such as area-based payments, and should place greater emphasis on the structural conditions of farms and region-specific support mechanisms.

One of the key objectives of the new CAP (2023-2027) is to ensure the contribution of agriculture to achieving the EU's Environment and Climate Policy objectives. Within the framework of the CAPTIVATE project, we aimed to develop a farmer-centred evaluation and training system with the participation of experts from five institutions. The main goal of this system is to improve the understanding of farmers and advisors regarding sustainable agriculture. As part of the initiative, an e-learning platform was established to offer a course on the theoretical background on sustainable agriculture, essential EU strategies and connections between good ecopractices in organic farming and new CAP subsidies. In addition, an Eco-Farm Assessment and Decision Tool (EAD) was developed that allows farmers to evaluate their farms from a sustainability standpoint, and based on its findings, it proposes where and how improvements are needed. The electronic platform was presented to the stakeholders through multiplier events in four countries.

Optimizing nutrient management in organic polytunnel production remains challenging due to the limited availability of field-based knowledge on the mineralization dynamics of organic fertilizers. At the same time, microalgae-based products such as Chlorella vulgaris have gained increasing attention in recent research, yet their interactions with nutrient supply intensity are not well understood. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of increasing nutrient supply intensities (34, 116, and 189 kg ha⁻¹ N from different organic sources), in combination with C. vulgaris foliar application, on the crop performance of kapia pepper and a subsequent leafy green crop under on-farm organic polytunnel conditions on soil with moderate organic matter content. Increasing production intensity did not result in significant improvements in pepper yield or vegetative biomass (p > 0.05), and no significant residual effects of nutrient supply were detected in the yield of the subsequent leafy green crop (p: 0.08–0.94). C. vulgaris treatment showed predominantly non-significant but positive trends in several parameters, but only in combination with high-intensity technology, while reducing the total pest damage of the thrips and stinkbug index up to 15.7% in most technology variations. These results indicate that the effects of C. vulgaris may be strongly context-dependent and confirm that increasing the intensity of nutrient supply may carry the risks of conventionalization of organic farming practices.