For the first time since November 1989, Czech farmers will have to adhere to regulations that should result in a more conscientious approach to use of arable land and treatment of the countryside. One aims of the new measures is to limit the risk of soil erosion and prevent floods.
Czech farmers as of Jan. 1, 2010 have to gradually implement new Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC), the final version of which was formulated by the government toward the end of 2009. The standards were modified several times during debates, but a compromise between agricultural specialists, environmentalists, the Ministry of Agriculture and representatives of the agricultural sector was eventually reached. “As of the new year, the GAEC requirements have become more complex and stricter, but now they better correspond with farming practices,” Ministry of Agriculture (MZe) spokesman Petr Vorlíček said.
The main aim of the 10 new standards added to the GAEC is protection of soil and its properties, and protection against sheet erosion, which is a major cause of flooding, according to the MZe. “The standards to deal with the problem of erosion have become considerably more stringent and not only in terms of cultivation methods, but also in terms of limiting the amount of land threatened with erosion,” Vorlíček said.
The MZe claims the new measures are in the interests of farmers because erosion reduces soil fertility and yield per hectare. Minister of Agriculture Jakub Šebesta also points out that adherence to the GAEC is a condition for obtaining agricultural subsidies from the European Union under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). EU member states have to formulate GAEC on the basis of guidelines set in Brussels.
Five GAEC standards were introduced in the Czech Republic in 2009. But even when the previous GAEC standards were being formulated, an inspection from Brussels concluded that the rules were not very effective for protection against soil erosion. For example, prior to the introduction of the new GAEC standards, crops planted in broad rows such as corn or potatoes, could be grown on slopes of up to up to 12 degrees and farmers were not obliged to put organic mass back into soil—a process that boosts soil fertility. But perhaps most importantly, the previous standards had virtually no effect on limiting erosion. In the Czech Republic, some 70 percent of farming land is threatened by erosion from wind and water.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Jiří Urban said that the new GAEC standards are being introduced gradually. In the first stage, certain GAEC conditions will affect less than 200,000 hectares of land seriously threatened with erosion, which accounts for just a few percent of all arable land in the country. “In the next stage, as of 2011, the GAEC standards will apply to some 43 percent of farming land,” Urban said.
However, Michal Pospíšil, an adviser to Jiří Papež (Civic Democrat, ODS), chairman of the agrarian committee of the Chamber of Deputies, said that even in the first stage, the new standards mark an important shift. “For instance, sanctions can also be imposed on farmers who are not bound to observe all GAEC conditions if an inspection finds out that their land has been damaged by erosion,” Pospíšil said.
At the mercy of inspectors
Representatives of the agricultural sector say they are relatively satisfied with the new rules because they were able to introduce amendments to the definitions of how the standards are to be observed. According to Milan Boleslav, the chairman of the Union of Marginal Areas (SMO), the most important change was substituting the original wording “the applicant will protect” with “the applicant shall not destroy, nor damage” landscape features on farmlands. “Farmers could have been accountable for every broken branch and would have had to prove it was not their fault. Something like this is beyond human powers,” Boleslav said. And any damage to landscape features—a lone tree, a cluster of trees or shrubs—could constitute grounds for subsidies to be reduced or stopped.
On the other hand, the principle of individual assessment contained in the original draft of the new standards remains unchanged, which implies various methods for assessing how the standards are observed. Farmers also demanded that the results of inspections should not affect their subsidies, but the Agriculture Ministry rejected the proposal. In practice this means that farmers cannot appeal against assessments issued by inspectors because if they do then subsidy payments can be suspended. “This puts farmers in a position of unequal partners, exposed to the mercy of bureaucrats and inspectors,” Boleslav said.
According to the EU guidelines, penalties for noncompliance range from 1 percent to 15 percent of the subsidies received by the farmer, depending on the degree of noncompliance and whether or not it is intentional. Penalties are imposed for each instance of noncompliance and are cumulative.
Contradictory regulations
But even Boleslav, like Pospíšil and representatives of the agricultural sector, say that overall the provisions and the formulation of the GAEC standards is sound. For example, a piece of land threatened with erosion can be divided into several lots and a ban on growing certain crops can be imposed only on the most threatened of these lots. Cultivation of corn, potatoes, sugar beets, beans, soybeans and sunflowers poses the greatest danger of soil erosion. To address this problem, the new standards call for organic mass being introduced to at least 20 percent of used arable land.
The standards state that farmers must not destroy or damage features of the landscape except in cases when they are required to do so in accordance with the regulations on protecting the environment and the landscape. Nevertheless, the GAEC standards do not precisely define the meaning of protection of features of the landscape. For instance, pruning can undoubtedly be considered an act of protection, so if inspectors find that branches and twigs have been removed, it should not be considered as damage. Likewise, it would be nonsensical to consider overgrowth of fruit trees, for example, as a feature of the landscape.
Also, point number seven of the principles concerning treatment of invasive plants is controversial. Plants such as touch-me-not or cow parsnip fall under this category. According to the GAEC, the height of cow parsnip must not surpass 70 centimeters. However, experience clearly shows that in order to implement this measure, cow parsnip may have to be cut virtually every month. And this measure could contravene regulations pertaining to subsidies for agro-environmental measures according to which, for example, farmers are obliged to protect birds nesting on the ground by not cutting grass. Therefore, it would be impossible to observe both requirements. Deputy Agriculture Minister Urban said that GAEC standards should take priority, but admits that liquidation of cow parsnip will probably be a problem.
But many GAEC standards are based on traditional knowledge and common sense. For instance, no crop residue is to be burned on soil used for cultivation and no agro-technical treatment is permitted when the soil is waterlogged. Also, as of Oct. 31, grassland may not be plowed and farmers will be responsible for ensuring that grass does not grow higher than 30 centimeters. Additionally, farmers may not use fertilizers within three meters of riverbanks and watercourses.
GAEC alone cannot stop erosion
The MZe admits that even the new GAEC standards cannot fully solve the soil erosion problem. “These conditions are only a part of a much larger set of initiatives, including informing the public as well as farmers, sensible farming practices and voluntary anti-erosion measures,” ministry communication manager Hugo Roldán said. Besides, the standards do not affect all lands. However, Roldán says the ministry is working on special anti-erosion regulations that will be included in a new law on the protection of land resources.
This article was originally published by Czech Business Weekly journal. Author: Petr Havel
