Danube Watch 3/2019 - A Specialised Approach to a General Concern
A griculture is an important component of the economy in many Danube countries. This is due to the fact that large parts of the Danube River Basin contain conditions favourable to agriculture, with over half of the river basin area being used for agricultural cultivation. Within the Danube region, agriculture acts as a major source of employment while also providing a good deal of base commodities which are needed to create processed foodstuffs. Unfortunately, even though agriculture is substantially subsidised by the EU and national governments, the sector is facing socio-economic challenges.
Agriculture, however, is not among the strongest economic sectors in the Danube River Basin. Because of economic conditions, the level of agricultural production is low in many regions, especially in Danube countries where very small farms (a few hectares) which depend heavily on national or EU subsidies and are especially vulnerable to external pressures such as market fluctuations, weather conditions or plant and animal diseases are the norm.
Due to the fact that agriculture in general requires a large amount of clean water, intensive agriculture may lead to issues related to the quantity and quality of surface and groundwater through pollution, over-extraction and problematic land management. This then threatens the ecological status of whole bodies of water while also jeopardising the sustainability of the agriculture sector's own water resources.
One of the most significant water management issues (SWMI) within the Danube River Basin, nutrient pollution, is very much connected to agriculture, and has led to the risk that about 20% of the region's surface waters may fail to meet good ecological status by 2021. The Black Sea, into which the Danube flows, also stands at high risk of eutrophication caused by nutrient loads because of its isolation.
Water scarcity and drought situations are increasingly becoming serious issues in the Danube River Basin with a series of drought periods seen in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. These situations are only expected to become more frequent, intense and longer in the future which will dramatically affect water-dependent agriculture. As an example, the drought in 2017 is estimated to have been responsible for an economic loss of more than a billion Euros within the Danube countries.
Water management and agriculture must be closely aligned in order to ensure the protection of water resources and the continued production of quality foodstuffs concurrently. Effective dialogue between these two sectors is still being developed to tackle the numerous multi-dimensional challenges present. Danube countries agreed to begin the creation of a guidance document on sustainable agriculture with the understanding that the socio-economic situation across the region must be improved in order for any agro-environmental policies to succeed.
To this end, agriculture and water policies need to be created with the specific intention of avoiding income losses to farmers while protecting waters. Policies and mindsets must be shifted away from more traditional command-control style enforcement of regulations to one in which farmers' economic perspectives are at the forefront. This new direction should be based on open dialogue, mutual trust and common understanding. Only in this way can a sustainable agriculture policy be developed that will allow for future agricultural and rural development without accepting nutrient pollution, water scarcity or income loss as unavoidable side-effects. This initiative is fully in line with the current political momentum of aligning water and agriculture policies at the EU level and the stronger ambitions of the proposed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2020 regarding environmental protection and climate change adaptation.
To achieve its ambitious goal, the Agriculture Guidance Paper recommends sound policy instruments, financial programmes and cost-efficient agricultural measures for decision makers. It offers Danube countries a framework and support for the preparation and implementation of their specific national agro-environmental policies, CAP Strategic Plans and relevant strategies of the River Basin Management Plans.
It provides specific advice on the efficient implementation of existing legislation (e.g. Nitrates Directive, cross-compliance/conditionality of the CAP) while also helping to identify, target and finance supplementary measures. The Guidance Document not only offers potential options for targeted, individualised and cost-effective national measures, it heavily encourages them and recognises their inherent advantages as opposed to a singular over-arching regional policy.
In order to address the environmental and sustainability challenges of agricultural production in the DRB, Danube countries are encouraged to:
- Flexibly design their nationally-specific measures;
- Strongly and actively promote nutrient management planning to farmers via information, knowledge exchange and advisory activities funded in the new CAP Strategic Plans;
- Examine the potential of the new, flexible and potentially very effective voluntary ‘eco-schemes’;
- Commit to the development of alternative DRB-specific approaches for voluntary agro-environment-climate interventions with particular focus on the development and implementation of collective / cooperative approaches and result-based payment schemes for more sustainable soil and water management;
- Make a significant investment in strengthening Farm Advisory Services and building an Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems for sustainable agriculture in the DRB as well as pay much greater attention to the capacity building of all actors (farmers, advisers, researchers, small and medium-sized enterprises etc.
- Promote the concept of Smart Villages as an emerging and potentially well-suited opportunity for rural communities in the DRB, making the best use of technology and social innovation.
While crafting policy, Danube countries are encouraged to consider a partnership-dialogue between the agriculture and water sectors to develop a cross-sectoral and mutual understanding of needs, expectations and constrains of the two areas. This also includes fully embracing novel technologies, new policy implementation techniques, strengthened advisory services and efficient knowledge and innovation systems laid out in the Guidance document in order to achieve the best results.
The Agriculture Guidance Document should be seen as a living document, open to updating and fine tuning. This is especially true regarding discussions on CAP post-2020 and additional input from the agriculture sector. To this end, follow-up workshops and consultation are planned to bring together relevant sectors and stakeholders in order to ensure that all aspects of the Guidance Document are as efficient and effective as possible in driving sustainable agriculture and water.
