Government wants to cut agricultural emissions into water
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Eutrophication of inland waters should come to a stop, and improvements in water quality in lakes and rivers should begin by 2015, wrote the Finnish government in guidelines on waterway protection that it approved on Thursday.
The goal of reducing emissions of nutrients focuses particularly on Finnish agriculture. The government wants to reduce nutrient emissions from farms by at least one third from the emission level of 2001 - 2005.
Previously, at least three separate national water protection programmes have been made. The latest one ended in 2005, and fell far short of the goals that were set for cutting agricultural emissions.
Now the programme states that the achievement of the goal will consider agricultural productivity and economic profitability. Emphasis is given to voluntary measures on the part of individual farmers.
Environment Ministry official Ulla Kaarikivi-Laine sees the new goals as ambitious.
Farmer Heikki Levävaara in Vihti has already embarked on his voluntary measures. He has initiated biological treatment for the farm’s waste water, with a microbe tank breaking down the waste in a tank buried beneath the farmyard. The remaining waste water is absorbed into lime pellets.
"Because I am a farmer, I want to take care of nature", he says, noting that the nearby stream has excellent trout.
Agriculture is responsible for 63 per cent of phosphorous emissions, and 51 per cent of nitrogen emissions into Finnish waters.
More than half of Finnish river waters and one fifth of Finland’s lake waters fall short of the "good" quality standard. The number of rivers and lakes classified as being of poor quality has remained almost unchanged since the mid-1990s.
Environmental subsidies for agriculture will not sufficiently improve the situation, according to the new protection programme. However, it will allow for more efficient utilisation of cattle manure, and the increased establishment of protective barriers and marshy areas to absorb nutrients in runoff from fields.
Heikki Levävaara’s farm has a strip of unfertilised land between the farm and the trout stream. The protective barrier is ten metres wide, which is more than it needs to be.
However, he also feels that rules on the phosphorous content of fertilisers are getting to be a too restrictive, and that any further reduction could have a negative effect on the quality of his grain.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 24.11.2006 - TODAY |
 Government wants to cut agricultural emissions into water |
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