Do Agri-Environment Schemes have a role for Soil, Water and Soil Organic Matter

The aim of our study was to review agri-environment (AE) schemes in terms of outcomes for soil water requirements. It should be noted that the implementation of agri-environmental measures in Europe contributes to several ecosystem services and thus has several objectives; of these, the conservation of soil water and soil organic matter is a relevant agenda spearheaded to the heart of research because of the current climatic conditions. The link to carbon storage is relevant although not straightforward. The starting point was a large body of work on agri-environmental measures that examined the effects on biodiversity in narrow geographical areas and the sociology of stakeholder engagement with policy. However, our study proceeded to focus on the effects of agri-environmental measures on soil water and soil organic matter. This study focused on several neighbouring Member States. Two methodological approaches were applied. The quantitative approach was carried out in view of the assessment of expenditure related to agri-environment schemes. The data we used came from the archive of agricultural area per farm in the Eurostat country files, and the expenditure data were reconstrued from the documentation of rural development budget over fifteen years in an in-house archive set up from the sheets by the European Commission. Cost -effectiveness was modelled in a set of two agri-environment schemes. A qualitative approach was used to examine rural development programmes in Central and Eastern Europe ( the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia)  and thus to pinpoint the relevant measures for soil water effects. These analyses were anchored in an extensive set of literature reviews on the identification of soils that need to be protected because of inadequate levels of soil water.

We found that the costs of AE measures reflect thecosts of the particular agri-environmental practice and its constraints on commercial performance. It was found that agri-environmental practices with effect on soil water and soil organic matter are likely to be a precursor for fledgling carbon farming schemes in Central and Eastern Europe, although monitoring is much more a crux in carbon farming than in agri-environmental schemes.

Keywords: soil; water; arable farming; agri-environmental measures