Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)

2017 / 3. szám - TRANSNATIONAL EFFORTS - Kovács Ádám: Agricultural development and good water status in the Danube River Basin - A contradiction?

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Ádám Kovács: Agricultural development and good water status in the Danube River Basin - A contradiction?

limited capacity to comply with strict and ambitious cultivation provisions.Therefore, countries should consider differentiating among farm sizes when the specific conditions for receiving direct payments are determined or revisedto avoid too high technical and administrative burdens and the associated economic difficulties. Voluntary agri-envi- ronmental measures of the rural development programs should be more (economically) attractive for the farmers offering feasible and advantageous options for additional measures and/or alternatives for agricultural practices. Moreover, funds and measures to improve water quality should be better targeted to critical areas where the pollution comes from and/or where the highest pollutant fluxes enter the surface waters. Controlling of a huge number of small farms is rather challenging, it should focus on the larger agro-industrial holdings, which generate bigger pollution. In general, there is a need for better coordination and alignment between water and agricultural policies to develop win-win strategies and joint actions.This has been recognised at the EU level (EC 2017) and discussed at a joint meeting of Water and Agriculture Directors.

With regard to the regional scale, a sound strategic guidance document on sustainable agriculture for the DRB is still missing. To address this shortcoming and the concerns mentioned above,Danube countries agreed in 2016 to start in close cooperation with the agricultural sector a broad discussion process aiming at developing a guidance document on sustainable agriculture to reduce nutrient pollution from diffuse sources. This initiative received full political support expressed in the Danube Declaration and adopted by the ICPDR 3rdMinisterial Meeting in 2016 (1CPDR 2016b) and is also supported by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) Priority Area 4 - Water Quality. The main objective of the guidance is to decouple future agricultural development from increasing nutrient pollution of surface and ground waters. To achieve this goal the guidance paper will recommend sound policy instruments, financial programs and cost-efficient agricultural measures for decision makers in the agro-environ- mental policy field. It should act as a strategic policy framework providing consistent approaches into which the Danube states are encouraged to integrate their individual national methods. The guidance will facilitate the sustainable development of agriculture in the DRBby carefully balancing the economic, ecologic and social aspects of agriculture and rural activities. It will contribute to strengthen the profitability of farmers, competitiveness of agriculture and vitality of rural areas. It will also ensure an effective protection of both, the DRB water bodies and the Black Sea coastal waters and ecosystems against excess nutrient inputs and their significant adverse impacts.The recommendations should be adoptable for the Danube countries in an “inclusive” way ensuring that the interests of the different groups of stakeholders and the regional differences in the basin in terms of both, the natural and socio-economic factors are considered.

The guidance will outline and promotetwo main development options according to land productivity and land conditions. Favourable areas with high soil fertility and

good climate conditions may face investments and sustainable intensification to increase competitiveness. This option would lead to a desirable development to improve the economic situation in rural areas, would give perspectives to people to stay and live there but would also fully integrate natural resources protection. A clear legal framework and an efficient implementation of cross-compliance and „greening“ should be in the focus here, backed up by appropriate control schemes.On the other hand, disadvantaged areas (quite often less favoured areas with a considerable part of high nature value farmland) are threatened by depopulation and land abandonment, which need to be counteracted by integrated rural development programmes including an economic basis for site-specific, traditionally extensive agricultural systems. In these regions but also in areas of high ecologic interest (e.g. riparian zones, floodplains and wetlands) agri-environmental programmes and compensations for ecosystem services (e.g. biodiversity, landscape maintenance and biotope management) and other income options for the agricultural sector like sustainable tourismshall be offered. In both cases, competent advisory services should be part of the business.

The elaboration ofthe guidanceis led by the ICPDR Nutrients Task Group and supported by invited water, agricultural and agro-economy experts. It will be further discussed attwo broader stakeholder workshops and by a public consultation process.The rationale and main objectives of the guidance document have been presented at the EUSDR event “Trust-building between water and agriculture sectors in the Danube Region” (04 October 2016, Bratislava) and at the European Commission workshop on water and agriculture “Enhancing cooperation between water and agriculture stakeholders to deliver sustainable agriculture and healthy waters” (24 October 2016, Bratislava). Moreover, the ICPDR submitted a voluntary commitment to the United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference (5-9 June 2017, New York), which aimed at supporting the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. The commitment highlights the guidance documentas a voluntary initiative of the Danube countries aiming at contributing to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 by reducing of nutrient pollution arising from the DRB and by protecting the coastal and marine ecosystems of the Black Sea (httpl).

The guidance is planned to be finalised and published in 2019. It will be further discussed after its finalization on follow-up workshops for amendments based on the implementation experiences. This will also ensure that the discussions between the water and agricultural sectors remains on the agenda.The ICPDR believes that the implementation of the guidance documentin the DRB will contribute to a sustainable nutrient management and agriculture and that decoupling of agricultural development and nutrient pollution is a common objective rather than contradiction.