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4.2   Measures at farm and landscape level

4.2.1        Sustainable water management and farm practices

Table 4.1 presents a consolidated list of water management and agricultural practices that can be used at farm and landscape to reduce agricultural pressures on the water environment. It focuses on measures that are commonly considered more sustainable (Chapter 2.2.1), and offer the potential to increase the resilience of agriculture and rural areas as no-regret measures. They build on the notion that reducing pressures on the water environment should be primarily supported by strategies increasing the sustainability of farming in particular by applying agro-ecological techniques (Chapter 2.2.1). Guiding principles include the need to increase resource use efficiency, increase circularity (e.g. nutrient recycling) and build diversity in agroecosystems to increase resilience, and to exploit ecosystem dynamics and synergies (FAO, 2018a).

Three groups can be distinguished:

• One group aim to enhance the efficiency of resource use in agriculture in order to reduce the emission of nutrient and chemical pollutants and reduce abstraction pressure, while preserving agricultural productivity. Optimising the use of inputs, through e.g. precision farming, has a large potential to make European agriculture more resources efficient (see Chapter 2.2.1). More efficient resource use is an essential first step in decoupling production from resource use, and reduce agricultural pressures to more sustainable levels.
• A second group of measures involves altering the management of soils, crops and livestock in order to enhance biological synergies and functions and natural biogeochemical cycles, with the overall aim of reducing the dependence of the farm system on external inputs. This is at the core of agroecological practices (Chapter 2.2.1). Hence, the measures highlighted in this group have benefits not only for water management, but also for biodiversity and habitat preservation, as well as for climate adaptation and mitigation (Murrell, 2017; EEA, 2019a; Smith et al., 2019).
• A third group relate to broader landscape approaches contributing to restore a more natural catchment hydrology, creating barriers to nutrient leaching and soil erosion, and reduce hydromorphological impacts on the water environment. This includes landscape elements such as buffer strips and riparian buffers and hedgerows to reduce overland runoff, as well as green infrastructures such as constructed wetlands and sediments to capture subsurface flows and polluted agricultural drainage outflows.

These measures are further discussed in Chapter 4.2. However, efficient uptake of those measures will need to consider the rebound effect, specific contributions of soil and livestock management, and yield reduction.

First, attempts to increase resource efficiency need to avoid that saved resources are redirected to other uses, rather than to reduce pressure.  This rebound effect should be avoided if the environmental performance of agriculture is to increase (Box 4.1).