Chain - Agriculture in cooperation with nature - Case Study
Client
Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops
Croatian Agricultural Land Agency
Financed by
The European Union from the Fund for the Serbia-Croatia cross-border cooperation
Countries
Republic of Serbia and Republic of Croatia
Background project
The Danube region is a major international hydrological basin and ecological corridor. This requires a regional approach to nature conservation, spatial planning and water management. The development of intensive agricultural production occurred in the examined area of Podunavlje thanks to fertile ground, abundance of water, favourable climate conditions and long tradition. The examined area is extremelysensitive to intensive agricultural production as the diffuse pollution source, having been situated in the protected area with natural resources of international importance (special nature reserve „Gornje Podunavlje” in Serbia and „Kopački rit” in Croatia).
Given the existence of two opposite interests in one area, maintaining balance between the nature and human activity is essential. Agricultural inputs– agrochemicals cause groundwater pollution all over the world, nitrate and phosphate in particular as a result of excessive fertilizer use or inadequate disposal of manure.
Overall objective of cross-border cooperation is to contribute to development and environment protection by managing risks of pollution caused by agricultural production and improvement of soil and ground water pollution control on agricultural surfaces in the Danube region.
In order to find a solution to this problem, the establishment of cooperation chain at all levels of pollution risk management is necessary. This chain starts from agricultural producers, their associations and the local government, to ministries and their executive bodies. Apart from the vertical and horizontal cooperation, mutual understanding and appreciation are also required.
Given that proper assessment of the effect of agricultural activities on environment quality can be done only through monitoring of soil and water quality, one aim of this project was to establish a system for continuous monitoring of soil and groundwater quality within the programme area.
Results
The CHAIN project members concluded: ‘With respect to the obtained results, soil quality monitoring is our obligation to the future generations, thus the continuation of soil monitoring is necessary in order to identify the patterns of soil quality changes and establish control over soil contamination.’
How does Eijkelkamp Soil & Water make the difference?
Eijkelkamp Soil & Water’s partner in the Republic of Serbia, Megra, was closely involved in the CHAIN project. They supplied the Eijkelkamp Soil & Water equipment mentioned below and trained and assisted the CHAIN project team.
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