Suchergebnisse

No-tillage in Europe contains a review of developments over the last three decades beginning in the late 1960s. Reasons for attempts to introduce this soil conserving production method are outlined and obstacles affecting the uptake of no-tillage throughout Europe are identified. Updated data are provided for the uptake of both conservation tillage and no-tillage in the member countries of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation. Further explanations for the low uptake of no-tillage and even conservation tillage when compared to other regions in the world are explored. The specificity of European conditions whether natural, human or political are used to provide arguments against the successful adoption of no-tillage in Europe. However, increased awareness of farmers, politicians and society as a whole that soils are a non-renewable resource are leading to gradual changes in the overall approach to soil conservation. The implementation of a European Soil Framework Directive is considered to be an important step towards the recognition that conservation tillage and no-tillage is both an economical and ecological sustainable method for crop production. It is anticipated that this will promote the concept of Conservation Agriculture and increase adoption levels throughout Europe.

International audience ; Pesticides are applied to agricultural fields to optimise crop yield and their global use is substantial. Their consideration in life cycle assessment (LCA) is affected by important inconsistencies between the emission inventory and impact assessment phases of LCA. A clear definition of the delineation between the product system model (life cycle inventory-LCI, technosphere) and the natural environment (life cycle impact assessment-LCIA, ecosphere) is missing and could be established via consensus building.A workshop held in 2013 in Glasgow, UK, had the goal of establishing consensus and creating clear guidelines in the following topics: (1) boundary between emission inventory and impact characterisation model, (2) spatial dimensions and the time periods assumed for the application of substances to open agricultural fields or in greenhouses and (3) emissions to the natural environment and their potential impacts. More than 30 specialists in agrifood LCI, LCIA, risk assessment and ecotoxicology, representing industry, government and academia from 15 countries and four continents, met to discuss and reach consensus. The resulting guidelines target LCA practitioners, data (base) and characterisation method developers, and decision makers.The focus was on defining a clear interface between LCI and LCIA, capable of supporting any goal and scope requirements while avoiding double counting or exclusion of important emission flows/impacts. Consensus was reached accordingly on distinct sets of recommendations for LCI and LCIA, respectively, recommending, for example, that buffer zones should be considered as part of the crop production system and the change in yield be considered. While the spatial dimensions of the field were not fixed, the temporal boundary between dynamic LCI fate modelling and steady-state LCIA fate modelling needs to be defined.For pesticide application, the inventory should report pesticide identification, crop, mass applied per active ingredient, application method or ...