Situation of Conservation Agriculture in Europe

Conservation Agriculture techniques can be adapted to very different climatic and soil conditions, as well as agrarian systems. Direct drilling (the best technique from an environmental point of view) is applied nowadays in countries so different as USA, Brazil, Australia or Ghana.

In Europe, an extensive research has taken place in the last 20 years and has demonstrated the potential benefits of these techniques from an environmental and economical point of view and the possibility of its application in most of the European agrarian systems. Moreover, in all European countries there are now pioneer farmers using these techniques for more than 10 years.

The evolution of Conservation Agriculture has been slower in EU countries than in other parts of the world, especially when talking about direct drilling. Different reasons can be found to explain this fewer development:

1)      Less need to take risks. In other parts of the world, where farmers do not receive subsidies, the reduction in the prices of agriculture commodities has made farmers to move to techniques that make them possible to reduce costs.

2)      Lack of technology. It is needed an adaptation of the machinery or techniques used in other countries to the European conditions

3)      Lack of transfer of technology. This has been, to our point of view, the most important factor contributing. Research has demonstrated that these techniques can be applied and well as their benefits, but these results have not been showed to farmers and technicians. One of the main objectives of this project was to overcome this.

4)      Lack of institutional support. Until now, there has not been a comprehensive strategy for soil protection at European level and in most of the members. One of the objectives of this project was also to raise awareness among policy makers in the European Union and in MS of the need to pay more attention to soil. The situation is now changing, and a Strategy for soil protection in Europe is being developed.

There are, as well, difficulties at National level. In Denmark, for example, the legislation on the use of herbicides in Denmark is very strict. In Denmark we are not allowed to use the same herbicides as in other European countries. The amount we are allowed to use of certain herbicides is often much lower than in the rest of Europe.

In Portugal, at this stage of development of Conservation Agriculture there are many factors of different nature that holdback the development of Conservation Agriculture in Portugal. From the economic point of view, the compensations that are paid to the farmers that adopt soil conservation tillage systems require that an extensive regulation is followed which is not compatible with most of our agricultural systems; another problem lies in the lack of associations and narrow business vision of most Portuguese farmers; from a sociologic point of view, the farmer population is old aged, they don't welcome change and they do not believe in the near future. 

As shown in figure 3 (data obtained from GKB), reasons named against the implementation of conservation tillage in Germany, can be met with agronomical knowledge. Numerous examples of farmers practising conservation tillage on a long term basis show that the system can be managed and successfully accomplished with agronomical know-how.

Whilst it is difficult to estimate the increase in uptake of Conservation Agriculture in Europe, the different National Associations have made estimations of the situation in their countries.

In United Kingdom, information gained from CA machinery sales indicate that whilst 85% of farmland was ploughed in 1995 this figure is estimated to be less than 80% in 2002. Furthermore, whilst CA has not been included in national UK legislation it relative merits, benefit deliverables are being included in current policy discussions, especially with respect to the draft soil protection policy (data from SMI).

Tough there are records of the commercial use of Conservation Agriculture in Portugal since as early as 1990, both the area and the number of farmers devoted to these practices remained small through all the decade due to scarce diffusion of information/formation of farmers and service providers. In 1999, year of the beginning of the Life project, the area devoted to Conservation Agriculture occupied not more than a few hundred ha. Tough there are no official numbers, a rough estimate based in some information granted by service providers and machinery and agrochemical companies, allow to infer that from the beginning of the project a quick evolution in the area occupied with Conservation Agriculture techniques (direct drill and zone tillage), totalising 11000 ha in 2002 and an estimate of 16000 ha in 2003. For other Conservation Agriculture techniques, such as minimum tillage and cover crops in perennial crops (olive, etc.), there are no trustful numbers but the penetration is quite high (data from APOSOLO). 

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 (data from APAD).

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

In Germany, the distribution of conservation tillage has considerably increased in the past 10 years. Farmers consequently ploughing their fields every year meanwhile constitute a minority. Unfortunately in Germany no comprehensive statistics exists on the distribution of conservation tillage, but presumably approximately 20-25 % arable land is under conservation tillage. The majority of the farmers dispense with the plough after rape or grain legumes and, when conditions are favorable also after silage maize, sugar beet, or potatoes. However extensive regional differences exist. Whilst for example in many arable areas in eastern Germany and Lower Saxonia the area of land under conservation tillage is distinctly greater, areas with structures dominated by small farms as in southern and western Germany or in the north sea fens conservation tillage is represented far less.

Furthermore the farm size has a major influence on the application of conservation tillage. Above all, large-scale farms calculate with the economic benefit in labour and fuel reductions and the financial benefit of full capacity machinery use. These factors have an influence on the decision toward conservation tillage. Especially farms with 100 till 500 ha and farms with more than 500 ha arable land increasingly apply conservation tillage methods (data from GKB).

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 (data obtained from ECAF National Associations).