Brussels,
30 September 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Over
1500 farmers from Europe and Latin America gathered recently near
Zaragoza, Spain to exchange experiences and know-how on Conservation
Agriculture (CA) techniques that protect agrarian soil, the environment
and its biodiversity. Conservation
Agriculture is a collective reference to low-tillage techniques that are
being promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United
Nations as "profitable and sustainable" for their many benefits
including positive effects on food security, biodiversity, land and water
resources.
As
stated by Luis García Torres, President of the European Conservation
Agriculture Federation (ECAF), the meeting's phenomenal attendance is
additional evidence that "even if Conservation Agriculture techniques
are being taken up slowly in Europe, farmers here are becoming
increasingly interested in their benefits, both the environmental
advantages such as soil protection and economic advantages such as
increased productivity."
Otto
T. Solbrig, a leading biologist at Harvard University who has done
extensive research on biodiversity and who attended the Zaragoza event,
predicts that Conservation Agriculture techniques will comprise 50% of
European agricultural production within 10 years. "Given its economic
benefits for the farmer, including reduced energy and water consumption
and lower labour costs, and its environmental benefits for water and soil
quality, it is hard to see why Conservation Agriculture won't catch on,"
he said. Furthermore, the growing encouragement of the EU's Common
Agricultural Policy for sustainable agricultural practices will certainly
stimulate the uptake of Conservation Agriculture in Europe.
Throughout
this 1st Hispano-American Day on Conservation Agriculture,
farmers had the opportunity to actively participate in a series of
interactive workshops and receive first hand information from the best
experts in the field. The workshops involved practical explanations of
Conservation Agriculture techniques, and its economic and environmental
benefits.
For
further information, please contact: Armando Martinez Vilela, Executive
Director of ECAF at tel: +34 610 753 267 or by e-mail: conservation.agriculture@ecaf.org
Website:
www.ecaf.org
About
ECAF
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
brings together fourteen national associations which promote among
Europe's farmers soil management "best practice" through
conservation agriculture. 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. We
invite you to visit our website: http://www.ecaf.org/
About
Conservation Agriculture
Conservation
Agriculture
refers to soil management practices which minimise the disruption of the
soil's structure, composition and natural biodiversity thereby also
minimising erosion and degradation, and water contamination. Direct sowing
and minimum cultivation systems are examples.
Conservation
agriculture has an increasingly prominent role to play in world
agriculture as farms seek to develop Integrated Crop Management (ICM)
systems that benefit the environment and enhance farm profitability.
Direct sowing and minimum cultivation systems are already in widespread
use in North and South America and other parts of the world. ECAF’s
mission is to help Europe catch up.
President:
Luis
García Torres
Professor, Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, Spanish Council for
Scientific Research, Cordoba, Spain
Vice-President:
Gottlieb
Basch
(Director of APOSOLO)
Professor of the Crop Science Department, University of Evora, Evora,
Portugal
General Secretary-Treasurer:
Friedrich
Tebrügge
(President of GKB)
Academic Director, Institute for Land Technology, Justus-Liebig University,
Giessen, Germany
Members:
Vic
Jordan (Chief Executive, UK SMI)
Formerly
Head, IACR Less Intensive Farming and Environment Programme; Research
Fellow, University of Bristol
Michele
Pisante (Executive
Secretary of AIGACoS)
Director, Extension and Experimental Station for Land
and Irrigation Techniques, Vasto, Italy
Executive Director:
Armando
Martínez-Vilela
conservation.agriculture@ecaf.org
