EU - How best to address soil degradation and support soil-friendly farming?
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/newsroom/en/346.htm
03-Jun-2009 (17 years 10 days ago)The European Commission's Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) will today present the main findings of the two-year project 'Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo)' in a policy seminar held in Brussels. The meeting will be attended, among others, by Member States' ministries and academia as well as farming, industrial and environmental organisations.
The SoCo project has shown that the existing suite of policy measures including cross compliance; rural development instruments or mechanisms for advice and support are adequate for addressing soil degradation processes in Europe. However, their effectiveness concerning soil conservation could be significantly increased if the soil quality levels were clearly defined, if policy measures were more targeted towards soil conservation, if more advice and support were provided to farmers, and if a stronger commitment was made to investment in indicators, data and monitoring in view of strengthening the knowledge base for policy making.
The SoCo project has shown that the existing suite of policy measures including cross compliance; rural development instruments or mechanisms for advice and support are adequate for addressing soil degradation processes in Europe. However, their effectiveness concerning soil conservation could be significantly increased if the soil quality levels were clearly defined, if policy measures were more targeted towards soil conservation, if more advice and support were provided to farmers, and if a stronger commitment was made to investment in indicators, data and monitoring in view of strengthening the knowledge base for policy making.