A range of government programs around the world
support farmers to undertake environmental projects
on farms, whether they be to reduce the negative effects
of agriculture on the environment
or to enhance the positive effects of agricultural
on the environment.
The environmental issues addressed in these government
programs vary quite a lot from country to country
depending on their histories, their cultures,
different climates, farming systems and so on.
According to the OECD, the common priority areas
for agri-environmental programmes,
efforts to improve water quality,
soil protection and soil quality,
water quantity and water availability, air quality,
and biodiversity.
So I'm going to talk a little bit more deeply about a few
of those starting with water quality.
There are a variety of different agricultural practices
that are promoted in these schemes
to try and improve water quality.
These include reduced agrichemical use, establishment
of vegetation buffers to stop the movement of water
into streams, the growth of trees to lower water tables--
that's a common example in Australia for management
or reduction of salinity-- reduced tillage
to reduce soil erosion, improved management of irrigation water,
capture of tailwater from irrigation farms
to stop it from running into streams.
Then there are a variety of projects focused
on reduction of soil erosion.
So agricultural practices that get
promoted for this include reduced tillage.
Tillage reduction has become a major success story
of environmental improvements in agriculture around the world.
Particularly in developed countries
there's been an enormous growth in the number of farmers
who greatly reduced the amount of plowing they
do when they plant their crops.
Then there's retention of crop residues.
Crop residues can be kept on the surface of the soil
or plowed into the soil, and it makes them more stable and less
likely to erode.
Reduction in grazing pressure to increase soil
cover-- if there's lots of livestock grazing on the soil,
it tends to loosen the surface, and it will
tend to run off, erode away.
Repairing existing erosion gullies and controlling
run off so that it's less likely to cause water erosion.
Next I'm going to talk a little bit about vegetation
and the provision of habitat for biodiversity.
This has been a really common theme
within Australian agri-environmental programs.
So the practices promoted include establishment
of native vegetation either in blocks or in belts
with crops and pastures grown in between the belts,
fencing of native vegetation to prevent grazing by livestock so
that the native vegetation can get established and grow and be
healthy and provide good habitat,
protecting breeding areas and wild food
sources for wild animals and birds and so on,
increasing the variety of crop species
or the different crop varieties of the same species,
and reducing use of toxic chemicals
in those cases where they're known
to be damaging to wildlife.
So many farmers around the world are
engaged in these types of environmental projects.
For example, in Australia we've recently
completed a program called Caring for our Country,
and one of its targets was to assist at least 3o% of farmers
to increase their uptake of sustainable farm and land
management practices that deliver improved ecosystem
services.
So this indicates that there was an intention
to really engage with a large proportion of the population
of farmers who are out there.
Of course, a number of major challenges
remain particularly around biodiversity and water quality
and particularly in rapidly developing countries
like China.
So in China in particular there's
been very rapid growth in agriculture.
This graph shows the increasing grain production over time
as agriculture has developed in China
over the last couple of decades, the last several decades.
And this is a similar graph showing livestock numbers
also rapidly increasing and livestock excreta
being a significant cause of nutrients
that can end up in waterways.
And so there are in China quite a few water bodies
that are really seriously affected by eutrophication
and algal blooms.
So it's a problem they're going to have to address
in a really serious way.
So in summary agri-environmental programs
pursue quite a range of different environmental
benefits and environmental outcomes.
And the local priorities vary from country to country.
There's quite a wide variety of different farming practices
that are promoted in these programs.
They vary depending on the different environmental issue
and depending on the country.
And we've identified that a significant number
of challenges remain.
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