With regard to point sources as waste water treatment (blue) and the diffuse sources as the agriculture (orange), the discharge of nitrogen has been declining over years.
The imbalance of the implementation of Nitrate Directive in different member states are driving discontentment among farmers in the EU countries and raising doubts over the necessity of a revision.
By Annie Lee
The Nitrates Directive was set across the European Union in 1991 for reducing nitrate pollution from agricultural sources.
Upon the directive, EU countries are required to locate areas that are nitrates-vulnerable and then to develop an action plan. Failing to achieve either one of them will be warned by European Commission or be taken to court.
As of June 2013, ten infringement cases were open against eight member states including France, Luxembourg, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Italy and Latvia.
Earlier in September, the European Court of Justice ruled against France in failing to comply the Nitrate Directive. It is the second indictment of France by the court over the Nitrate Directive. But four agricultural organisations in France have issued a joint statement calling for a revision for the directive.
“In France, there was huge problem on the algae growth in 2012-13. The problem was very visible and was caused by nitrates. We haven’t seen the same level of pollution in other parts of Europe,“ said Joseph Hennon, spokesperson of the Environment Commissioner of European Union.
In Denmark, where the spokesperson considers one of the countries with good implementation of the directive, has a similar regulation in place before the Nitrate Directive of EU. Their Danish water management plans was kicked off in 1987.
With the Nitrate Directive and the Danish regulations, the surveillance of groundwater in Denmark has shown decreasing nitrate concentration over the years. There are also less nitrogen are coming out in the marine waters.
But Danish farmers are worrying about the nutrient content of their production over the strict rules on nitrates.
The use of nitrogen
Water pollution with nutrients from agriculture in Europe has remained a major pressure as it renders water unsuitable for many uses and for ecosystems and aquatic life.
The costs involved in cleaning the water are enormous, and indirect costs on health care systems and other sectors depending on the water use are sizable.
In the period of 2008-2011, the European Commission report revealed that 14.4% of groundwater and 2.4% of surface water exceeded the thresholds set by the World Health Organisation. During the same period, 16.3% of monitoring stations reported eutrophic and 6.3% were hypertrophic respectively. In the form of chemical fertilisers or manure, nitrogen is used to make crops grow. But when nitrogen is deployed excessively, their high concentration will result in water contamination by a chemical process called eutrophication.
Eutrophication creates excessive algae and weed growth, causing oxygen depletion for lives in rivers and seas.
Farmers’ competition in the EU single market
“There are extreme differences between Denmark and other EU countries. In Denmark, the restrictions on the use of manure are really strict,” Niels Peter Nørring, the Area Director of Environment and Energy at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, said, “Beyond the south of the Danish border, people can spread manure in a way we spread it 15 years ago. In Germany, they still sell equipment for wide spreading of manure, a method banned in Denmark several years ago.”
With Denmark going beyond the EU requirement and much further than some other member states,it may have an adverse effect on the level playing field of the farmers’ market.
Kristoffer Piil, consultant of Plants and Environment from the Agricultural Knowledge Centre in Denmark, said, “Danish farmers are not angry at the Nitrate Directive, but at the over-implementation in Denmark and the under-implementation in other member states.”
One measure in the Nitrate Directive states that farmers are not allowed to bring out more than 170kg per hectare of nitrogen from animal manure. In Denmark, the government and the parliament have decided to lower the limit to 140 kg per hectare of nitrogen for poultry and pigs.
“The Danish farmers suffer a significant burden compared with their colleagues in other EU countries like Sweden and Germany, as Danes have to have more farmland to spread the manure on,” said Niels Peter Nørring.
The Nitrate Directive allows a basic threshold for nitrate level across the EU countries, but it is possible for member states to ask EU Commission for a different one if they have circumstances. It is known as derogation.
Ireland has been granted a derogation from the EU this February. While half of the Irish farmers inspected for the nitrates directive were in breach as the concentration for nitrogen was too high, they got around the problem by negotiating the derogation. The threshold was jumped from 170kg nitrogen per hectare to 250kg.
“A level playing field is an illusion. There are so many derogations and particularities for the market situations,” said Andrzej Nowakowski, the Green advisor on Agriculture and Rural Development in the European Parliament,
The commissioner’s spokesperson said it is crucial to balance the farmers’ interest and people’s right to unpolluted water. “Farmers can argue that the nitrate directive is putting a burden on them, but if they pollute the water, then that’s a burden on the rest of the population.”
Strict nitrogen limits result in the loss of protein content
The restrictions on fertilisation reduce the yields as well as the contents of protein.
Eric Thirouin, the President of the Environment Committee at a French farmers’ union called FNSEA, said, “There is a problem with the protein level. The level is taking down because of a smaller supply of nitrogen by the regulations.“
The spokesperson of the Environment Commissioner said he has never heard of the declination of protein content and refuses to comment on that.
But according to the Agricultural Knowledge Centre in Denmark, the protein content of Danish grain over the past 20 years reduce to 8.5% in this year’s harvest, whereas in Germany, it is close to 10.5%.
In Denmark, a quota is set on the use of total nitrogen fertiliser, at an equivalent of 15% to 20% below the economic optimum.
Niels Peter Nørring, “The Danish farmers are starving the plants on the fields year after year. This has enormous costs for the farmers and at the same time reducing the soil fertility.”
In other words, the quality of wheat and barley in Denmark is decreasing every year.
“At the moment, the quality of wheat and barley is not sufficient for bread and beer production,” Niels Peter Nørring said, “The lack of protein is also a problem in relation to the animal production. Farmers are forced to buy protein sources so we have to import a lot of soya from the South America. It gives the burden to farmers as they have to buy more expensive feed.”
Is a revision of the Nitrate Directive needed?
Andrzej Nowakowski said he did not see the need for a revision of the directive, “The problem is the implementation and the way the threshold is set.”
In Denmark, the focus on the implementation of the directive has been on the amount of fertiliser and manure applied to the agricultural fields, and also the additional measures like use of cover crops.
According to the research from the Aarhus University, Denmark has a large proportion of agriculture land at 62% and about two-thirds of the agricultural area in arable crops that are prone to nitrate leaching.
Jørgen Eivind Olesen, professor in the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University, said there are many vulnerable aquatic ecosystems surrounding Denmark and he expects Denmark to do even more due to the “intensive agriculture with much livestock farming”.
“The nitrates directive is solely focused on nitrogen inputs as the source of the pollution. But this is not the whole story,” Jørgen Eivind Olesen added, “More flexibility in the farming industry in terms of innovative methods to reduce pollution should be allowed for.”
The Danish Agriculture and Food council agrees that the government should focus more on output of nitrogen to environment
The Environment Commission in EU believes that the main challenge is the population density and the intensity of agriculture. “For small country like Denmark, Netherland and Belgium to produce livestock and growing crops, clearly there will be problems with nitrogen” the spokesperson said. “I think the solution to that is to try to develop ways to using fertilisers that didn’t pollute much.”
In France, FNSEA agrees with more research to be done.
“Today in France the nitrates’ level is rising up to 50mg. But we made no scientific study on eutrophication. So farmers endure arbitrary decisions,” said Eric Thirouin. “And relating to eutrophication, it could be due to multiple factors. We hope to study in more scientific ways.”
According to The Copenhagen Post, the energy sector has voluntarily agreed on an industry commitment to sustainable biomass energy production. The agreement includes requirements on sustainable forestry and the emission of CO2 in the supply chain of biomass material for energy generation.
Denmark is trying to achieve its goal to use 100% renewable fuel sources for energy and transportation systems. Energy from biomass will use fuel derived from living organisms with the advantage of being able to be stored and used when wind energy production goes into standstill.
Annie Lee is a Hong Kong journalism student currently studying in Denmark. She is concerned with the environmental issues abroad and devotes to inform readers the latest environmental news around the globe.