Archive:Agri-environmental indicators - driving forces - input use

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Agriculture and the environment

With about 40 % of the EU’s land area being farmed, agriculture has a very important impact on the natural environment. Farming can have beneficial influences on the environment, for instance in creating valuable landscapes and habitats. But inappropriate agricultural practices and land use can also have an adverse impact on natural resources, like the pollution of soil, water and air, fragmentation of habitats and loss of wildlife.

Agri-Environmantal Indicators (AEI)

The links between the richness of the natural environment and farming practices are complex. AEI are used to quantify and describe these complex relations between agricultural and agri-environmental policies, agricultural practices and the environment. AEI assess trends over time of;

the effects of agriculture on the environment;
the effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural and environmental policy measures.

The Commission is developing 28 indicators following the Driving Forces - Pressures - State - Impact - Response model. The DPSIR concept is an analytical framework that has been developed at the European Environment Agency (Environmental indicators - Typology and overview, EEA, 1999) in order to describe and understand the inter-linkages between economic activities and the environment relating to farming practices, agricultural production systems, pressures and risk to the environment and the state of natural resources.

Driving force indicators

The driving force indicators contribute to a better understanding of the state and evolution of regional farming systems in relation to input use, land use and management practices. They also shed light on general farm trends (intensification/extensification, diversification, and marginalisation) that can affect the conservation of environmental resources in either positive or negative ways.
The driving force indicators relate to:

Input use: Mineral fertiliser consumption, Consumption of pesticides, Irrigation, Energy use,
Land use: Land use change, Cropping patterns, Livestock patterns,
Farm management: Soil cover, Tillage practices, Manure storage,
Trends: Intensification/extensification, Specialisation, Risk of land abandonment.

In this article a selection of the input use indicators are explained:

Mineral fertiliser consumption by agriculture
Irrigation
Energy use by agriculture

Main statistical findings

Text with Footnote ^[1]

Mineral fertiliser consumption by agriculture

Fertilizers contain important nutrients, such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K), which plants absorb from the soil for their growth. Fertilizers are therefore an essential input in agricultural production. In addition to livestock manure used as an organic fertilizer, most farms — with the exception of organic farms — also apply large amounts of mineral fertilizers manufactured by the fertilizer industry. Food production nowadays is very much depending on the use of mineral fertilizers: Over the past 40 years, mineral fertilizers accounted for an estimated 40 percent of the increase in world food production (Jenkinson, D.S. Department of Soil Science, Rothamsted Research. Interview with BBC World. 6 November 2010).

Unbalanced fertilizer applications (applications of fertilizers exceeding plants’ nutritional requirements) and farming practices can lead to nutrient losses to the air, soil, ground and surface water. Nitrogen emissions add to climate change and acidification. High concentration of nutrients in water bodies can lead to eutrophication. In order to limit the negative impact of fertilizer and manure use on the environment, a number of legislative measures have been taken, such as the Nitrates Directive, the National Emission Ceilings Directive and the Water Framework Directive, including designation of nitrate-vulnerable zones where Member States have imposed regulatory limits on the load and timing for fertilizer (and manure) spreading on agricultural land.

Mineral fertilizers also have adverse environmental effects stemming from their production processes. More specifically, nitrogenous fertilizers — the fertilizers most commonly consumed — require large amounts of energy and ultimately cause greenhouse gas emissions. In a completely different way, phosphorus and potash fertilizers also have an environmental impact, since the raw materials used to produce them are mined, therefore inducing the typical damage associated with mining, e.g. landscape destruction, water contamination, excessive water consumption and air pollution. Phosphate rock reserves are limited and only found in a few countries in the world. The EU is almost completely depending for the production of phophorus fertilizers on import from reserves located outside the EU. A report by Plant Research Institute (Wageningen, the Netherlands) estimates that today’s economically exploitable resources with
current consumption will be depleted within 125 years and total reserves within 340 years. In some regions of the EU soils are saturated with phosphorous (for instance parts of the Netherlands and Belgium), and risk of phosphorous leaching and run-off is high. In other regions (for instance parts of Mediterrenean and East European countries) soils are phosphorous deficient, and risk of soil erosion and loss of soil fertility are high.

Data from the Joint OECD/Eurostat Questionnaires on AEI show that between 1991 and 2006 the nitrogen fertiliser consumption increased in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary, decreased in Austria, Schwitzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania and Slovakia and remained constant in Norway. The largest increase occurred in Hungary (+34%) and the largest decrease in Denmark (-49%). Phosphorous fertiliser consumption increased in Hungary (+33%) and decreased in Poland, Czech Republic , Austria, Schwitzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania and Slovakia. The largest decrease occurred in Slovakia (-80%).

Subdivision 2

Data sources and availability

Context

Further Eurostat information

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Database

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Notes

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[[Category:<Subtheme category name(s)>|Statistical article]] [[Category:<Statistical article>|Statistical article]]

[1] Text of the footnote.

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