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The launch of the Friends of Conservation Agriculture initiative took place last 26 February, 2004, with the participation of Commissioner Franz Fischler, the Secretary General, COPA-COGECA Frans-Jozef Feiter anfd ECAF President Gottlieb Basch.
More information:
Overview :
Friends of Conservation Agriculture.
“Conservation Agriculture”, or “CA”, refers to a set of well-known low or no-tillage farming practices. CA constitutes by far the most practical set of methods and tools by which Europe’s farmers can enhance the environmental sustainability of their operations – and thereby respond effectively to the increasing pressures upon them to do just that.
Research
has demonstrated beyond doubt that agrarian soil protection and
enhancement is the single most important requirement for achieving the
long-term goal of sustainable agriculture.
- All competent scientific authorities agree that conventional tilling of the soil is the primary cause of four principal threats to agrarian soil: soil erosion ; soil compaction ; the decline in organic matter ; the decline in soil biodiversity.
- CA methods are already applied to some 80 million hectares of farmland worldwide, and have the strong endorsement and support of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Why create a body - Friends of Conservation Agriculture - to support and promote the up-take of CA across Europe ? Because :
- Europe lags behind North and South America in the uptake of CA.
- Lack of awareness and deeply-rooted farming traditions in many parts of Europe remain significant barriers to the spread of CA.
- Agricultural policies in many parts of Europe do not yet provide the proper incentives and support for transition to CA.
Strong partnership between political leaders and policy makers, academic authorities, the farming community and affected agro-industrial sectors is therefore now essential to overcome these barriers and close the gap.
Three years ago, a group of Europe’s leading academic specialists created the European Conservation Agriculture Federation – or ECAF. Since then, ECAF has almost single-handedly led the effort to spread both scientific and practical understanding of CA among Europe’s farmers and policy-makers.
Now, through the creation of Friends of Conservation Agriculture, a wider partnership of stakeholders is being created to campaign more actively across Europe for the spread of CA itself, and CA-friendly public policies.
Summary
- Purpose : To promote the up-take across Europe of farming techniques collectively known as “Conservation Agriculture”, and to promote public policies in support of the up-take of Conservation Agriculture.
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Legal personality :
Organised within the European Conservation Agriculture Federations,
a not-for-profit Association organised under Belgian law (ASBL).
- Membership : Open to Commercial and non-commercial organisations (e.g. ECAF) who share the goals of the Foundation.
- Governance : Planning and implementation of the programmes supported by FCA will take place through the FCA Steering Committee and any sub-Committees it creates. All FCA members have a seat on the Steering Committee, which will adopt its own internal rules and procedures.
- Funding : Primarily from annual membership dues, the amount to be fixed by the governing instances of ECAF acting on recommendation from the FCA Steering Committee. The annual amount may vary between membership categories.
- Operations : FCA will pursue its purpose primarily through planning and support for information and educational campaigns, targeted on farming communities and policy leaderships. Members may be involved in such campaigns as appropriate.
