EAWAG news 59e (November 2005)
Agriculture and Water Quality (Entire volume) 1,9 MB
| Editorial: Water Protection and Agricultural Policy Sitting in the Same Boat |
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| Stephan Müller, FOEFL |
| Lead Article |
| Agrochemicals - How Dangerous are They for Lakes and Rivers? (Screenversion 275 KB; Printversion 930 KB) Christian Stamm Agriculture relies on large quantities of agrochemicals. Rain transfers at least a portion of these chemicals into lakes and rivers. Therefore, agriculture and water protection seem to be at odds. However, the state is making enormous efforts to improve the situation and is financing measures to prevent agrochemicals from reaching the waterbodies. The various articles contributing to this volume highlight how large the impacts are, whether the measures implemented actually work, and how the total package of measures may be advanced best to meet the future challenges. |
| Research Reports |
| Agricultural Policy and Water Protection (Screenversion 230 KB; Printversion 780 KB) Conrad Widmer, Federal Office for Agriculture. Switzerland has a leading role in Europe with the reform to its agricultural policy, and in particular with the Proof for Ecological Performance as prerequisite for direct payments. The area-wide measures within the Proof for Ecological Performance meanwhile have positive effects on water quality. Focus points for further improvements to water quality include providing more space to watercourses and reducing local phosphorus excesses in soil. |
| Contaminated Drinking Water from Agricultural Areas? (Screenversion 328 KB; Printversion 1.4 MB) Hans Peter Füchslin Drinking water from rural catchments is normally either not at all or minimally treated. It is precisely this water which can be contaminated by liquid manure or excrement from grazing animals. The most worrying aspect are the environmentally persistent forms of cryptosporidia. In 9 out of 15 investigated drinking water catchments in rural areas, we could in fact detect cryptosporidia. It is still to be determined whether they present a hazard for humans. |
| Use of Antibiotics in Agriculture - Consequences for the Environment (Screenversion 470 KB; Printversion 1,5 MB) Krispin Stoob After their use in animal husbandry, sulphonamide antibiotics are spread with the liquid manure onto the farmland. Despite an initially rapid decrease of the concentration in the soil, residual amounts remain detectable for months. In addition, rain can wash the antibiotics out of the soil into neighboring water bodies. A further problem is the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the liquid manure. To what extent the use of antibiotics promotes the development and distribution of resistant bacteria is still unclear. |
| Pesticides in Water - Research Meets Politics (Screenversion 330 KB; Printversion 1,6 MB) Heinz Singer Pesticides have been consistently detected in high concentrations in Swiss surface waters over a number of decades. The direct payments scheme introduced in 1993 for ecological measures in agriculture was designed to improve the situation. The goal was to halve the pesticide pollution by the year 2005. A pesticide pollution analysis carried out by EAWAG in the Greifensee region reveals that the target has not been fully achieved. Although there has been a reduction in the total quantity of pesticides used, the measures designed to reduce the pesticide loss from the treated farmland have largely failed to take effect. |
| Pesticides: Risks to Lakes and Streams? (Screenversion 145 KB; Printversion 230 KB) Nathalie Chèvre Pesticide residues are most undesirable in surface waters. By applying a global quality criterion of 0.1 µg/l, the Swiss Water Protection Ordinance to date does not discriminate between the different effects of the over 400 registered active substances. To improve this situation, Eawag proposes an effect-based risk assessment approach for individual pesticides and pesticide mixtures. |
| Promoting Location Suitable Land Use (Screenversion 150 KB; Printversion 200 KB) Kurt Zgraggen und Christian Flury, Institute of Agricultural Economics at ETH Zurich Changing demands on the cultivated and natural landscape lead to land use conflicts between agricultural production, work and recreation purposes, and environmental protection. An economic land use model also integrating environmental factors enables us to assess the developments in agrarian structures and agricultural land use and to deduce their impacts on the environment. |
| National Strategy for Agricultural Nitrogen Reduction (Screenversion 190 KB; Printversion 550 KB) Werner Hediger, Institute of Agricultural Economics at ETH Zurich For the reduction of environmentally harmful nitrogen emissions from agriculture, the project group Nitrogen Balance Switzerland formulated environmental targets that have also found consideration in current agricultural policy. Recent calculations show that the intermediate goal for 2005 cannot be achieved. Responsible for this is, amongst others, the lack of sufficient and targeted economic incentives. These could be created through a system of steering levies on nitrogen fertilizer and a spatially differentiated land use tax. |
FORUM |
| In Brief (Screenversion 145 KB; Printversion 400 KB) |
Please feel free to submit questions or suggestions any time to the editor Martina Bauchrowitz.