Milieubewuste vormen van akkerbouw, een momentopname

Abstract

RIVM is in the process of developing a Decision Support System (DSS) for the Rural Environment to both diagnose spatial and environmental problems and explore potential solutions. An investigation directed at the incorporation of arable farming in the DSS made an inventory and study of spatial and environmental aspects of ten 'environmentally friendly' cropping systems. When pesticides are not used, as in the case of organic farming, the frequency and growing period of potatoes, the most important crop, are limited. The annual yield of these potatoes, calculated as an average of the crop rotation cycle, amounted to 40% of that of other environmentally friendly and regular cropping systems. The restriction of using only manure in organic farming would lead to the application of too much phosphate and/or an increase in nitrate leaching on more than 70% of the arable land. This does not occur where mineral fertilisers are used in an environmentally conscious way. The ten environmentally friendly cropping systems can be aggregated into two types: organic without the use of pesticides and mineral fertilizer and integrated cropping with an environmental and agronomic optimisation of crop rotation, fertilisation and use of pesticides. The environmental advantages of all systems can be combined into a new third type: cropping without using pesticides, however, with the use of mineral fertiliser and/or manure. It will suffice to consider these three cropping types in the DSS for examining the contribution of environmentally friendly cropping to solving spatial and environmental problems. In addition, the system in which, for example, three-metre wide field margins are not fertilised or treated by pesticides, can be considered as a separate type or used in combination with each cropping type.