farmland area News
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Abandoned farmland widespread in central and eastern Europe
A new study suggests that abandoned farmland is widespread in Europe and that not all land that has been abandoned is unsuitable for farming. Understanding how abandoned farmland is distributed may be important for making land management decisions – for instance, recultivation versus reversion to forest. To meet the future demands of a growing population, it may be necessary to increase ...
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Bees in the city: urban environments could help support pollinators
Urban areas may support higher levels of bee diversity than expected, new research has shown. The UK-wide study compared three different habitat types — nature reserves, farmland, and urban areas — and found a higher number of different bee species in urban areas than farmland. However, the overall pollinator diversity, which included species of bees, flies, hoverflies and ...
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Predicting contamination of farmland after flooding
Floods and the resulting damage to agricultural and urban environments are likely to increase as a result of climate change. Major floods in Europe, such as those affecting the Elbe River in Germany in August 2002, can result in contamination by heavy metals of flooded farmland. Taking zinc as an example, a new modelling approach showed that there was more than a one in three chance that ...
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CAP reform and crop diversity can be springboard for growth
Linking CAP payments to crop diversity represents a growth opportunity for farmers, according to anaerobic digestion (AD) specialist EnviTec Biogas UK. Under the new rules, 30 per cent of direct payments will depend on demonstrating environmentally-friendly farming practices – including crop diversification. Full details are yet to emerge, but “greening” the CAP is likely to ...
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LEAF announces significant progress in sustainable farming
LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) has revealed another year of significant progress in its mission to deliver more sustainable food and farming. The area of land around the world growing LEAF Marque crops increased by 28% since last year,according to the findings of its latest annual Global Impacts Report, which was launched today. LEAF reports strong and steady growth in the number of ...
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Birds could provide a simple means of identifying high nature value farmland
New research from central Italy shows that high nature value farmland in the region can be accurately identified by the presence of just four bird species. Once such groups of species have been identified for different regions, they can provide a quick and inexpensive tool for assessing the ecological value of farmland, the researchers say. Agriculture is a major land use across Europe and ...
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Ecuador sues Colombia to stop anti-coca herbicide spray
The government of Ecuador this week filed suit at the International Court of Justice against the government of Colombia, in an effort to stop or restrict aerial anti-coca spraying that has allegedly sickened people on the Ecuadorean side of the border and harmed livestock, farmland, and sensitive, ecologically diverse rainforest areas. The lawsuit follows seven years of persistent but ...
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Balanced approach to restoring farmland biodiversity shares and separates land
It is possible to balance agricultural production with improved biodiversity on farmland, according to researchers. A new study suggests using a combination of land sharing techniques, which enhance biodiversity on existing farmland, with land separation techniques, which designate separate areas for conservation and farmland production. The expansion of agriculture and intensification of ...
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Artificial wetlands on farmland help to prevent soil loss and recapture agricultural by-products
Small field wetlands are a simple and effective way to reduce soil erosion and nutrient pollution, recent research suggests. The authors adapted Norwegian designs for the UK environment and created a series of small rectangular lakes on the edges of agricultural fields. After three years, the wetlands had prevented tonnes of soil from leaving the land, and helped alleviate some of the nutrient ...
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Baker’s yeast wastewater has limited effect on groundwater when used for irrigation
Untreated wastewater from the baker’s yeast industry can be used to irrigate crops without negatively affecting the chemical quality of the groundwater beneath, recently published research concludes. Although the wastewater increased concentrations of some groundwater contaminants in an area with a high water table, these levels would not pose a risk to human health even if this water was ...
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Improving livelihoods for poorer forest dwellers in Nepal
Community forestry in Nepal claims to be a successful model of participatory, community-based forest management, and there is considerable evidence that it is improving forest protection and regeneration. However, community forestry makes only a limited contribution to improving rural livelihoods. New research suggests that social factors may be limiting the access of poorer households to ...
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Populations of grassland butterflies decline almost 50 % over two decades
Grassland butterflies have declined dramatically between 1990 and 2011. This has been caused by intensifying agriculture and a failure to properly manage grassland ecosystems, according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The fall in grassland butterfly numbers is particularly worrying, according to the report, because these butterflies are considered to be representative ...
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Bayer to invest a total of 60 million euros in its Ukrainian seed production site
Company was part of delegation led by German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck to Kyiv this week Bayer underscores commitment to Ukraine and to help rebuild the economy Investment adds to earlier 200 million euro spending for seed production and multiple efforts to support Ukraine Bayer has revealed an investment of overall 60 million euros from 2023 onwards in its corn seed ...
By Bayer AG
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CAP Reform – an explanation of the main elements
The Commission, the Council and the European Parliament (EP) have reached a political agreement on the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy – subject to formal approval by the Council and the EP as a 1streading Agreement. Most elements were agreed in trilogue on June 26, and the last remaining issues (linked to the Multi-Annual Financial framework package) were finalised on September 24. ...
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