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EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL
Boosting the European Green Deal in the crop production sector
The European Green Deal and European environmental and food strategies have established ambitious compliance objectives for which the agricultural sector and sustainable systems such as Conservation Agriculture will play an essential role.
Conservation Agriculture is a farming system that offers multiple environmental, economic and social benefits. It can contribute to attaining the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies as well as the specific objectives set out by the European Commission for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
A roadmap to make the EU economy sustainable and climate neutral by 2050. This includes a shift to a sustainable food system that can bring environmental, health and social benefits, as well as offer fairer economic gains.
THE NEW 2023-2027 CAP
The new common agricultural policy will be key to securing the future of agriculture and forestry by ensuring a sustainable future for European Farmers, providing more targeted support to smaller farms, and allowing greater flexibility for EU countries to adapt measures to local conditions. Agriculture and rural areas are central to the European Green Deal, and the new CAP will be a key tool in reaching the ambitions of the Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies.
LARGE AGRICULTURE AND
SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE IN DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, POLAND, AND SPAIN
CA is a sustainable agriculture production system comprising a set of farming practices adapted to the requirements of crops and local conditions of each region, whose farming and soil management techniques protect the soil from erosion and degradation, improve its quality and biodiversity, and contribute to the preservation of the natural resources, water and air, while optimizing yields
Principles on which CA is based
2.
Permanent vegetation coverage on the surface
3.
Rotation of crops and/or diversification of crops
1.
Not altering arable land through tilling actions
Relevance of CA (six countries)
The benefits of CA
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S NEW 2023-2027 CAP
Contribution to more dynamic rural areas
Socio-economic contribution
CA-related farming activities bring direct and indirect economic benefits through time saving and thus reduction in labour requirement. Therefore, CA allows farmers to devote time to other economic and social activities on and off the farm
AIR
WATER
SOIL
BIODIVERSITY
FARMERS
Contributions to GDP
Contributions to employment
CA as an instrument to make rural areas more dynamic and to fight against rural abandonment
Agriculture and rural development
Essential tools for CA practices
No-till seeders
No-till seeders are essential to prevent soil organic carbon losses that arise from tillage.
Integrated Weed Management
The integrated weed management (IWM) practice in CA optimizes the use of plant protection methods and products, including herbicides
The role of the herbicide Glyphosate
Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides due to its appropriate characteristics: effective one-pass weed control on a broad spectrum of weeds and cover-crops, environmental profile, non- selectivity, cost-effectiveness, etc
of the current crop production can be associated with the use of glyphosate
of EU farmers believe that there is no cost-efficient alternative to glyphosate
of farmers would abandon no-tillage soil management systems (CA) if it were not for glyphosate
€2,680m
35%
38%
The risks of not having access to herbicides (such as glyphosate)
It should be specified that the elimination of glyphosate would cause varying increased costs for the farmer depending on the dose applied, the active substance used and the type of weeds targeted.
COST INCREASE
MACROECONOMIC ESTIMATED CONTRIBUTION OF THE USE OF GLYPHOSATE IN DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, POLAND, AND SPAIN (2021) - GDP
Economic
sustainability
Environmental sustainability
Social
sustainability
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
SOCIAL
Environmental
Socio-economic
45%
Higher costs with the use of chemical alternatives to glyphosate in CA
€2,680 M
Decrease in crop output without the use of glyphosate
1,328m
direct contribution
1,469m
spillover effects
2,799m
total contribution
Conservation Agriculture and the tools for its implementation in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain
Herbicides in IWM
CA principles lead to the application of optimised amounts of herbicides whilst minimizing the risk of downstream contamination.
The essential tools needed to implement CA include no-till seeders and IWM with optimized herbicide use