Conclusions from practical soil management
Practices on the ground! project is coming towards its closing faze, of reflection and communicating on the results it has obtained through different research and consulting activities with farmers from Romanian agriculture, as well as relevant institutions in the field.
We will present in the following paragraphs a series of conclusions connected to the sustainable management of the soil from the perspective of farmers obtained after a process of self-analysis in agricultural activities in the counties Cluj, Mureș, Bistrița-Năsăud și Alba. The answers of 238 farmers from the mentioned counties have been analysed. Most of these farmers own farms of 1-10 hectares of land, with an appropriate endowment in equipment. Most of these farmers do not have an education in agriculture, but have medium studies made. Their main source of information in regards to pesticides, fungicides etc. comes from the distributors. The farmers misconduct comes from: applying chemical and organic fertilizers to fertilize crops; ploughing the land no matter the crop; using a 2-year crop-rotation process; etc.
Most of the respondents do not take special measures to maintain soil fertility. To maintain the health of the soil they should do the following actions: starting an annual crop destined to be green fertilizer; grow leguminous crops both perennial and annual; apply fertilizers by the indications offered in the fertilization plan made by the Office of Pedologic and Agrochemical Studies.
The main requirements of farmers regarding public authorities consist in: creating ecological ramps; gathering waste from the land; trainings of information and specialization; applying fines for not respecting legislation, increasing the information flow regarding soil protection from local authorities.
Authorities perspective. There have been 40 public interest requests sent out, on the basis of Law no. 544, the law of free access to public interest information, towards institutions of competence in the field of protecting soil quality from counties Alba, Cluj, Mureș, Bistrița-Năsăud. There have been only 20 responses.
These institutions have competencies regarding soil analysis and study both for national programs, as bell as for private beneficiaries, farmers; they check the application of the law by farmers regarding GAEC standards; they supervise waste management, soil quality; thei give out information regarding the way of using pesticide and fertilizers; they have an inventory of perimeters of potentially contaminated soils; they give out notices, agreements and authorisations; they ensure inspection and control.
50% of these institutions have qualified personnel to monitor the upholding of the legislation regarding the protection of the environment and the soil. Trainings of information are organized bay county authorities for farmers only by one institution of the ones who have responded, whilst information campaigns have been done by other authorities as well. Only 50% of the responding institutions are applying practical measures to reduce the negative impact of farming on the soil.
The main challenges in soil management encountered by the state authorities are: incontrollable depositing of waste; fertilizing land without an agrochemical mapping first; fixing contaminated soils; educating population regarding the pollution of the soil with plastic; applying a higher than recommended dose of pesticides; not properly executing agriculture work.
The perspective of local mayor’s offices. 142 mayor’s offices have been invited in the research connected to soil management, whilst 33 have agreed to join. These mayor’s offices have mentioned that they develop facilities destined to soil protection. And that they distribute bulletins from the Phytosanitary Office, that they make information campaigns to the population regarding selective waste collection and they distribute waist bins.
After this study we have concluded that farmers own an average level of awareness in good agricultural practices. The facilities given by the mayor’s offices are found in few settlements, not having a local infrastructure of addressing the challenges in soil management. The mayor’s offices do not give out sanctions, they intensify the informational stage regarding soil protection and preservation, considering these sanctions as something that should be applied by other institutions.
A strong impact on the soil comes from burning and burying packaging from pesticides, a well as also the incontrollable increase in the dose of pesticide.
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