Communicating the Principles of Sustainable Agriculture to the Farmer

Keywords: Farm advice, Agricultural sustainability, Agricultural pollution, Fertiliser advice.

The paper explains two examples of communicating the principles of sustainable agriculture, one from France and one from England and Wales.

The first part of the paper describes the work of CORPEN, the French Committee for the Reduction of Water Pollution by nitrate. CORPEN is central to the efforts of the French government working with all other interested parties to reduce nitrate loss to water from agriculture. One of the approaches adopted is to communicate improved fertiliser practice to French farmers in a systematic way. To achieve this The National Association for Agricultural Development (ANDA) has established the ‘Ferti-Mieux’ name under which individual regional advisory campaigns are promoted and quality controlled. So far about 500,000 ha is under a Ferti-Mieux programme.

The second part of the paper explains the work done in England and Wales by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to establish and promote Codes of Good Agricultural Practice for the protection of water, of air and of soil. These Codes present the current consensus on the balance between agricultural production and environmental protection. They integrate current legislation and advice. The consensus was reached after wide consultation with interested organisations and individuals.

The Codes are being promoted generally and specifically though the development of farm waste plans for the land application of livestock wastes. Farmers are being encouraged both nationally and in particular target catchments to prepare their own plans and submit them for quality checking.

G Thevenet and L Lescar, Comifer-ITCF, 8 Av. Du President Wilson, 75116 Paris, France.

J R Archer, ADAS, Nobel house, london SW1J 3JR, UK.

24 pages.