PROYECT 99 E - 308

Current agri-environmental problems in Europe

Conservation Agriculture attracts different people for different reasons:

Farmers:

·         Reduction in labour, time, farm power

·         Reduction in cost

·         In case of mechanized farmers: longer lifetime and less repair of tractors, less power and fewer passes, hence much lower fuel consumption

·         The soil quality improves by increasing organic matter content and water infiltration

·         Greater abundance and diversity of soil organisms (microorganisms, earthworms)

·         More stable yields, particularly in dry years

·         Better trafficability in the field

·         Gradually increasing yields with decreasing inputs

·         Increased profit, in some cases from the beginning, in all cases after a few years.

Communities/Environment/Watershed:

·         More constant water flows in the rivers, re-emergence of dried wells

·         Cleaner water due to less erosion

·         More wildlife (birds, small mammals)

·         Less flooding

·         Less impact of extreme climatic situations (hurricanes, drought etc.)

·         Less cost for road and waterway maintenance

·         Better food security

At global level:

·         Carbon sequestration (greenhouse effect): in some places no-till farmers start to receive carbon-grant payments; the global potential of Conservation Agriculture in carbon sequestration could equal the human made increase in CO₂ in the atmosphere.

·         Less leaching of soil nutrients or chemicals into the ground water

·         Less pollution of the water

·         Practically no erosion (erosion is less than soil build up)

·         Recharge of the aquifers through better infiltration

·         Less fuel use in agriculture

1. Increased soil fertility, soil regeneration and decreased soil erosion

In Europe, soil degradation due to erosion and compaction processes is probably the most important environmental problem caused by conventional agriculture, seriously affecting nearly 157 million hectares (16% of Europe, nearly 3 times as large as France). Most EU countries are affected by this problem to some extent. In the Mediterranean area, soil erosion is very severe, moderately to seriously affecting 50% to 70% of agricultural land. Conventional agriculture intensification (increased mechanisation and ploughing) over the past 50 years has contributed substantially to this trend, increasing the risk of desertification in the most vulnerable areas

The erosion problem has a strong economic impact on the affected agricultural land, and off-site on the surrounding civil public infrastructure. Estimates indicate that the erosion increases agricultural production costs by about 25% each year (53 EUR per hectare). Further, if on-site and off-site costs are combined, the total annual cost of erosion from agriculture can be estimated at about 85.5 EUR per hectare.

According to a recent survey conducted in nine EU member states, experts concluded that long-term use of no-tillage on about 40 % of the EU arable land (29 million ha) is possible without major problems. If no-tillage was applied just to 40% of the land with high risk of erosion (4.6 million ha), the loss of valuable topsoil compared to traditional tillage (185.6 Mt) could be reduced by 36%.  Taking the average thickness of the tilled layer as 25 cm, more than 19,000 ha yr^-1 are protected from soil loss by no-tillage. The total cost savings by the reduction of on and off-site costs (90% of 85.5 Euro ha^-1) would be about 354 million Euros. The cost saving for fuel (1.02 billion Euro) and process costs (4.35 billion Euro) would be about 5.37 billion Euro yr^-1. This adds up to 6.284 billion Euros per year.

2. Water quality

Water quality is seriously impaired by conventional agriculture. Soil sediment from eroded agricultural land is by far the most important contaminant of surface water. Because conservation agricultural systems greatly reduce soil erosion (> 90% for direct sowing/ no-till, > 60% for non-inversion tillage), the adoption of these systems significantly improve surface water quality by reducing sediment. Further, these systems also result in a reduction of about 70% in herbicide runoff, > 85% in oxidised nitrogen, > 65% in soluble phosphate, and about 69% less water runoff than mouldboard ploughing, all of which are a real boon to improving water quality.

3. Soil organics matter and global warming

Conventional agriculture, (i.e. straw burning and/ or mouldboard ploughing produce extra carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to the atmosphere and reduce the potential CO₂ sink effect of the soil, thereby decreasing the organic matter content of the soil and contributing to global warming. Historically, intensive tillage of agricultural soils has led to substantial losses of soil carbon (C), frequently over 50% in the 20-30 years of cultivation. Conversely, the adoption of conservation agriculture practices; such as direct sowing or non-inversion tillage counteract these effects. A decline in organic matter content will affect soil structure and stability, water retention properties, buffering capacity, biological activity and the retention and exchange of nutrients.

Studies show that if 70% of arable land could be cultivated using no-tillage or reduced tillage CA techniques, a total yearly CO₂ sequestration of 130 Mt could be achieved.  Taken together with an additional savings of 5.3 Mt of CO₂ through less fuel consumption, the total emission reduction would account for almost 40% of the 346 Mt by which the EU member states have agreed to reduce CO₂ emissions by 2012.

4. Improved biodiversity

On 20-year old sites cultivated with different tillage systems, a few years after changing from traditional inversion mouldboard ploughing, with, to a no-tillage system, there was an increase from 20 to 30 earthworms  m^-2  to 200 earthworms m^-2. Moreover, several studies have shown that no-till fields have higher densities of birds (and nests) and are used by a greater variety of bird species during the breeding season than tilled fields. Conventional agriculture leaves the soil bare for long periods of time. Lack of quality habitat and sparse nesting cover are a problem for many bird species. In contrast, high-residue crop production systems can provide food and shelter for wildlife at critical times.

5. Reduce costs and fuel consumption

In addition to the many environmental benefits of CA outlined above, it also provides economic benefits to farmers making it a true ‘win-win’ environmental technology.  In conventional agriculture, tillage operations require considerably higher inputs in machinery investment and maintenance, fossil combustibles and labour inputs as compared to conservation agriculture, especially direct sowing/no-tillage. For example, in no-till olive crops, a saving of about 60 to 80 litres of fuel and 3 to 5 hours of labour per hectare annually is estimated as compared to conventional tillage. Generally, conservation agriculture reduce the energy consumption of farming operations and increases energy productivity (yield output per energy input) in the range of 15%-50% and 25%-100%, respectively.

Direct drilling/ no-tillage requires as little as one pass for planting compared to two or more tillage operations plus planting for conventional tillage. Fewer passes save an estimated 97 EUR per hectare on machinery depreciation and maintenance costs. That is, about 1950 EUR savings on a 200 hectares farm. Direct sowing/no-tillage also permits a fuel saving of an average of 31.5 litres per hectare annually compared to conventional tillage systems. These savings normally compensate for or exceed the extra costs of conservation tillage (e.g. direct sowing machinery). The annual cost reduction in direct sowing of annual crops compared to conventional tillage ranges between 40 and 60 EUR per hectare in Southern Europe conditions.

Project Partners                                                                                                                        

The European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) is a network of leading European academics, scientists and farmers. Its mission is to help develop and spread farming practices focused on maintaining the agrarian soil and its biodiversity in the context of sustainable agriculture. ECAF is not involved in any commercial product, equipment and/ or trademark. ECAF was organized in April 1998 and fully legalized under the Belgian Law at January 14th, 1999.  ECAF Board is  made up of farmers, scientists, environmentalists, advisors and technicians from both the public sector and private industries. ECAF is in contact with farmer groups at European level, in order to coordinate actions.

This project has been conducted by seven non-profit making National Associations of Conservation Agriculture (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom), under the coordination of ECAF.

Through the course of this LIFE project others CA National Associations have jointed ECAF. So that, currently ECAF brings together fourteen national associations. With member associations in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, ECAF represents the interests of the majority of the European Union's cropped farmland.

National Associations are made up of members from concerned collectives of the agrarian sectors, bringing together farmers (the president of different National associations are farmers), scientists, technicians from private companies and Farmer’s Unions and officials from diverse government and environmental administrations as well as stakeholders in the food industry sector. This allows the participation of all the different sectors when planning the national actions programs, contributing with their own views on the problems and how to overcome them to a better promotion and diffusion of conservation agriculture techniques.

 Essentially this LIFE project intends to give a feasible answer/ solution to the main agri- environment problems caused by the still predominant conventional techniques through consistent actions of transfer of technology of CA and information actions to Administrations at EU, National and local levels. Literally, the objectives of the project were drawn as following:

• Cooperation and transfer of know-how between different European players concerned with agriculture and the environment
• To improve agrarian techniques which permit a more sustainable development applicable to the greater part of the European agrarian surface, paving the way for the implantation of agri-environmental measures
• To carry out a wide dissemination and transfer technology of these techniques among experts, administration personnel and farmers so that they can be applied without difficulty.

 This project has developed joint/ coordinating actions on two levels:

 6.1. European level

 Main outcomes can be summarized as follows, 

·         Organization of the First World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

·         Organization of five international workshops for cooperation and transfer of know-how with the participation of experts of the different countries.

·         Edition of a Newsletter and other publications including three books, widely distributed among administrators, environmentalists, farmers and agronomists.

• Creation of a web site on Conservation Agriculture: www.ecaf.org
• Elaboration of a CD-ROM, with the results of the workshops, congresses and newsletters, and key issues of the techniques.

 ECAF has worked very closely with the Commission in the development of the Communication COM(2002) 179final “Towards a thematic strategy on Soil Protection”  and has participated in different workshops. In this moment 6 members of ECAF are taking part in the Advisory Forum and four of the working groups for the development of this strategy. Different members of National assocations are collaborating with the governments of their states in this strategy.

 ECAF has worked together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to develop programmes at international level. ECAF have also had a close cooperation with European Agencies of Co-operation; such as French CIRAD and German GTZ for allowing key person have access to relevant information/studies on Conservation Agriculture benefits and technical practices. At European level, members of the ECAF executive committee have held a number of contacts with officials of the European Commission (DG Agriculture, DG Environment and DG Development), members of the European Parliament and officials of the Economic and Social Committee. ECAF members have also participated in different workshops and congresses at European level on agriculture and environment and the integration in CAP and environmental policy.

ECAF has also collaborated in the development of Conservation Agriculture in other countries not included at the beginning of the project, such as Belgium, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Slovak Republic and Switzerland.

6.2. National level                                                                                                                                                            

a) Transfer of technology. Dissemination and diffusion

One of the main parts of the project has been the development of activities for the transfer of knowledge and technology to the agrarian sector through:

Ø      Organization of congresses, seminars, workshops, and training courses for farmers, technicians and policy makers to discuss the technical aspects and the environmental benefits, raise awareness of the main environmental problems of conventional agriculture, especially soil erosion and loss of organic matter. In these three years, around 230 events have been organized, with the participation of more than 17,000 people.

Ø      Organization of field days and machinery demonstrations in farms already practicing CA techniques where farmers can directly learn the application. These field days are very important for the transfer of technology in the agrarian sector. Around 230 actions have been organized, with around 35,000 attendees.

Ø      Edition of different material including Topic Sheets on practical implementation, bulletins with news, activities, and technical advances, technical leaflets and books. More than 100 different publications have been edited, with around 200,000 copies distributed.

Ø      Participation in fairs, conferences and seminars of importance in the agrarian sector showing stands, giving seminars, etc We have participated in about 130 events throughout all Europe.

Ø      Diffusion through mass media: articles in specialized mass media (magazines, web sites devoted to agriculture…) and also in general mass media (TV, radio, newspapers) to give general society knowledge of the benefits of conservation agriculture for the environment, especially to improve the water and soil quality.

Ø      Web sites with all kinds of information about conservation agriculture: environmental advantages, technical advise, forum… There are now 10 web sites running, one from ECAF at European level) and 9 at National level.

Ø      Establishment of regional working groups. These groups are mainly made of farmers, although they normally also integrates people from the Local Administration, scientists from research centers and companies established in the zone. The work of these groups is considered very important as it allows a direct exchange of experiences among farmers, very important for the establishment of new techniques. About 35 of these groups have been set up in the different countries.

b) Contacts with policy makers/ institutions.

From the beginning of the project, the partners of the project have been in close contact with officials and policy makers in member states to collaborate in the integration of soil protection in the agri-environmental measures existing in the Common Agricultural Policy. As a result, they have participated in the elaboration of the following legislation:

-          Regional programme in Andalucia for promoting cover crops in olive trees.

-          National programme of agri-environmental measures in Spain. Inclusion of line 4: measures against erosion, which includes a programme for promoting cover crops in perennial crops and one programme for promoting Conservation Agriculture techniques in annual crops: minimum tillage and direct drilling

-          National Programme of Portugal: measures for promoting conservation agriculture in perennial and annual crops.

-          Different regional programmes in Germany

-          National programme in France for the promotion of cover crops in annual crops.  

Whilst it is difficult to estimate the increase in uptake of Conservation Agriculture in the different countries information gathered from different sources allows estimating the following data:

In United Kingdom information gained from CA machinery sales indicates that whilst 85% of farmland was ploughed in 1995 this figure is estimated to be less than 80% in 2002.

In France, the estimation is that surface under Conservation Agriculture techniques is around 3 million hectares at the end of the project, with an increase of 1 million hectares in comparison with the situation in 1999. The surface under direct drilling has increased from 50,000 to 150,000 ha in the same period.

In Denmark FRDK in 1999 about 1-2 % of the agricultural land was not ploughed today 5-10% of the land is not ploughed (estimated).

In Portugal in 1999 the area devoted to Conservation Agriculture occupied not more than a few hundred ha. A quick evolution in the area occupied with Conservation Agriculture techniques (direct drill and zone tillage), has taken place, totalising 11000 ha in 2002 and an estimate of 16000 ha in 2003.

In Germany there has also been an important increase and it is estimated that approximately 20-25 % arable land is now under conservation tillage.

Spain has been a real platform for the introduction of the techniques. In late 1999 there were some 1.2 million hectares under Conservation Agriculture practises. Nowadays we are around 2 million hectares. That shows a great evolution, almost 70% increased, in such a short time.

Table 2. Estimation of surface under Conservation Agriculture and Direct Drilling in different European Countries.

More information:

·         ECAF Web site:                                          www.ecaf.org

·         BARACA (Belgium)                                    www.baraca.be 

·         AEAC.SV (Spain)                                       www.aeac-sv.org 

·         AIGACoS (Italy)                                         www.aigacos.it 

·         APAD (France)                                           www.apad.asso.fr  

·         APOSOLO (Portugal)                                 www.aposolo.pt

·         FRDK (Denmark)                                        www.frdk.dk

·         GKB (Germany)                                           www.gkb-ev.de

·         SMI (United Kingdom)                                www.smi.org.uk

·         Swiss No-Till                                               www.no-till.ch

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