Agriculture and Rural Development

Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020: Instruments to promote agricultural and

forest soil sustainable management

Antonio De Angelis

DG AGRI

Unit H4 (Environment, forestry and climate change)

Soil Stakeholders' Conference Session IV – How to promote

agricultural and forest soil

sustainable management?

Brussels, 5 December 2016

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Outline

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014-2020: Objectives

CAP Instruments beneficial for environment

CAP instruments contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable

management (with some examples)

Open issues

2

Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020: objectives

Viable food production

Sustainable management of natural resources and climate action, with a focus on greenhouse gas

emissions, biodiversity, soil and water

Balanced territorial development

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4

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Sustainable management of natural resources and climate action: the new greening architecture of the CAP

Agricultural area

(eligible for direct payments)

Cross compliance

Greening

Rural

development

Cu

mu

lati

ve

en

vir

on

men

tal

ben

efi

ts

Regulatory:

(Statutory

Management

Requirements and

Good Agricultural

Environmental

Conditions)

Mandatory

(with financial

Support)

Voluntary

(with compensation

for cost incurred

and income forgone)

Implementation mechanism

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Cross-compliance rules contributing to agricultural soil sustainable management

WATER

● GAEC 1: Establishment of buffer strips along water courses

( impact also on soils along water courses)

SOIL AND CARBON STOCK

● GAEC 4: Minimum soil cover ( prevent soil erosion and landslides, maintain soil

organic matter)

● GAEC 5: Minimum land management reflecting site specific conditions to limit

erosion

● GAEC 6: Maintenance of soil organic matter level through appropriate practices

including ban on burning arable stubble, except for plant health reasons

LANDSCAPE, MINIMUM LEVEL OF MAINTENANCE

● GAEC 7: Retention of landscape features, including where appropriate, hedges,

ponds, ditches, trees in line, in group or isolated, field margins and

terraces ……

( impact also on soil quality and erosion)

"The application of GAEC has reduced soil loss from arable lands by 20% in

past decade" (Panagos et al, 2015b)

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6

Examples of greening practices contributing to sustainable management of agricultural soil

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•Crop diversification:

Crop diversification and equivalent practices (e.g., crop rotation, winter soil

cover) are expected to contribute to improving soil quality.

Maintaining existing permanent grassland:

Ban on ploughing and conversion prevents other more intensive land use, that

can negatively affect soil quality

Maintenance of permanent grassland contributes to maintenance of soil

organic matter and carbon sequestration

Equivalent practices related to management of meadows or pasture can

contribute to preventing soil erosion (e.g., appropriate management of steep

slopes) and to preservation of soil biodiversity (e.g., cutting regime, pesticide

restrictions).

Ecological focus areas (EFA):

terraces, landscape features, buffer strips, agro-forestry and afforested areas

can contribute to preventing soil erosion.

RDP priorities and focus areas related to sustainable management of agricultural and forest soils

Among the Union Priorities and Focus Areas (i.e. sub-priorities) of the

RD programming period 2014-2020, there are:

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Priority 4: restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to

agriculture and forestry,

Focus area 4(c): preventing soil erosion and improving soil

management.

Priority 5: promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift

towards a low carbon and climate resilient economy in agriculture,

food and forestry sectors,

Focus area 5(e): fostering carbon conservation and

sequestration in agriculture and forestry.

Examples of RD measures contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable management (I)

M04 – Investments in physical assets (art 17) (e.g. establishing landscape features such as hedges, stonewalls,

terraces to prevent soil erosion; purchase of machinery for minimum tillage and precise seed drill on untilled soils)

M07 – Basic services and village renewal in rural areas (art 20) (e.g. restoration of rural landscapes and high nature value sites)

M08 – Investments in forest area development (art 21) (e.g. afforestation, establishment of agroforestry systems; investments

in soil-friendly harvesting machinery and tools for soil-friendly practices)

M10 – Agri-environment-climate (art 28) (e.g. no use of herbicides and maintenance of spontaneous vegetation

in a given period followed by conservation tillage; Increase rotations with

winter cereals and leguminosae)

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Examples of RD measures contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable management (II)

M11 - Organic farming (art 29) farming practices with positive benefits on

soil organic matter content, avoiding soil erosion and soil compaction,

crop rotation, extensive management of grasslands.

M12 - Natura 2000 and Water Framework Directive payments (art 30) (e.g. only practices going beyond SMR and GAECs; major changes in type

of land use)

M13 - Payments to areas facing natural or other specific constraints (art

31) (e.g. maintenance of natural pastures and farming activities in mountain

areas)

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Examples of RD measures contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable management (III)

M15 – Forest-environmental and climate services and forest

conservation (art 34)

(only commitments going beyond mandatory requirement established by

national forestry law +

for forest holdings above a certain size (to be defined by the MS), support

conditioned to presence of a forest management plan or equivalent instrument

(in line with sustainable forest management as defined by the Ministerial

Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe of 1993).

European Innovation Partnership network (art 53): The tasks of the EIP network include to facilitate the setting up of

cluster initiatives and pilot and demonstration projects relating, inter alia, to biodiversity, ecosystem services, soil functionality and sustainable water management.

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Targets for sustainable soil management in rural development

programmes [Focus Area 4(c)]

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14.3% of agricultural land and 3.4% of forestry land under

management contracts to improve soil management and/or

prevent erosion

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Agriculture and Rural Development

Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020: Instruments to promote agricultural and

forest soil sustainable management

Antonio De Angelis

DG AGRI

Unit H4 (Environment, forestry and climate change)

Soil Stakeholders' Conference Session IV – How to promote

agricultural and forest soil

sustainable management?

Brussels, 5 December 2016