Soil and Water Protection in European Agriculture:

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• Soil and Water Protectionin European
  Agriculture
• proposed guidelines book
• October 2005
• Mike Lane

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Outline

• The background
• - Political environment- SOWAP and ProTerra
  projects
• The proposal Conservation Agriculture guidelines
  for Europe
• Opportunity for collaboration

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SOWAP and ProTerra

• SOWAP
• Soil and Water Protection Project
• EU Life Environment Project
• Arable crops, Northern and Central Europe
• ProTerra
• For soil
• Syngenta project
• Vines and olives, Mediterranean region

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Political environment

• Water Framework Directive - Here now
• Soil Framework Directive - Coming soon
• These set environmental targets for
• Clean water
• Healthy soil
• for farmers and land managers, amongst others
• No detail on
• How to keep water clean?
• What is healthy soil, and how to achieve it?
• CAP Reform Single farm payments requiring
  observation of environmental standards. Will
  help to deliver Water and Soil directives

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SOWAP and ProTerra

• Demonstrating that good soil management benefits
  the environment and the farm business
• Arable and perennial crops
• Multi-disciplinary
• soil erosion
• water quality (chemical and biological)
• biodiversity (above and below ground)
• Economics
• Widespread across Europe

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SOWAP ProTerra European relevance
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SOWAP and ProTerra multi-stakeholder
and importantly, Farmers
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Our Vision

• To work in collaboration with farmers, experts,
  policymakers and other stakeholders to answer the
  questions
• How to reduce agricultural diffuse pollution?
• What other benefits does a healthy soil
  provide?
• To demonstrate that these can be achieved in a
  practical and economically viable way
• To disseminate the outcomes to all stakeholders
• Create interest in soil and understanding of the
  link between soil and water

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Our Vision

• Adapt the principles of conservation agriculture
  to provide in-field soil and water management
  solutions that are site-specific
• Compare outcomes agronomic, economic,
  ecological - with local conventional agriculture
• Put soil management in the context of the entire
  farming system and off-site effects

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SOWAP and ProTerra Work and information flow
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A SOWAP demonstration site
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SOWAP ProTerra early results

• In Belgium in high risk silty soils using
  Conservation Tillage we have observed an
  average 60 reduction in sediment erosion and 40
  reduction in water run-off when results are
  compared to the conventional plough approach
• In olives and vines in the ProTerra project we
  have huge reductions in sediment erosion for
  example in a large single rainfall event in
  France sediment erosion rates were reduced from
  70 t/ha to 1.5 t/ha when a managed cover crop was
  employed
• In the SOWAP project early information suggests
  enhanced biodiversity (avian, terrestrial and
  aquatic) when catchment farming uses
  Conservation Tillage

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SOWAP ProTerra European impact?

• We have worked over a number of years to develop
  solutions to the questions
• We work across Europe, encompassing a wide range
  of expertise
• We want to contribute at the European level by
  bringing our experience and knowledge together in
  a single place
• The CAMEO project was born
• To ensure its accuracy and relevance, we need
  external expert reviewers

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What is CAMEO? (and what is it not)

• Conservation Agriculture Manual for EurOpe
• A guide to soil and water conservation in
  European agriculture
• Contributors from SOWAP, ProTerra and other
  projects
• The target audience is policy makers and advisors
• It is not for farmers
• An easy-to-read guide that ensures the content is
  readily accessible
• It is a set of guidelines rather than a manual,
  but CAGEO doesnt really work!

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What's in CAMEO?

• Overview of Soil and Water conservation
  practices
• Soil and water issues in Europe
• Policy framework Soil Thematic Strategy, Water
  Framework Directive, CAP Reform
• Crop guidelines
• Arable
• Perennial (trees, nuts and vines)
• Horticulture
• Grassland
• Conclusions

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Progress and whats missing

• Much of the ground work is complete
• Overview of soil and water conservation
• Arable and perennial crop guidelines
• First draft of some of the issues and policy
  initiatives
• Whats missing
• A foreword
• An independent review of the technical aspects of
  the book

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So why am I here?

• The ESBN as I understand it
• Collects, harmonises, organises and distributes
  soil information for Europe
• However this has been expanded recently to
  include
• Soil information in Europe, to address a number
  of environmental problems and questions e.g.
• Degradation of soil structure
• Risk of erosion (by water and wind)
• Supply of water at catchment level
• Assessing the suitability (and sustainability)
  for traditional and alternative crops
• Estimation of soil stability
• Leaching of agrochemicals
• Most of which are central to the work of SOWAP,
  ProTerra and CAMEO

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So what is the proposal?

• We would like to invite ESBN to become a full
  member of the CAMEO project which would also
  link them to both SOWAP and ProTerra
• We would value contributions from ESBN to CAMEO,
  especially in the area of soil protection
• We would also invite ESBN members to technically
  review CAMEO
• We would like ESBN to be a partner in the
  publication of CAMEO