Environment Energy Mining Watch SEE|News|Soil protection in Croatia

Soil protection in Croatia

, News

Research in the Republic of Croatia shows that as much as 89% of soil samples for permanent crops are low humus, with the leading four counties of eastern Croatia, only 3% of their samples contain more than 3.4% of humus in the arable soil layer. The key threats to soil protection and fertility in Croatia are: narrow crop rotation, industrial livestock farming on large farms, without – or, with very little agricultural land, which concentrate fertilizer production in a narrow area, and which, due to high transport costs, is unprofitable to use on more distant agricultural land and hydroponic cultivation – production of vegetables without soil.

As concluded by the participants of the National Soil Forum entitled “How to protect the soil: agricultural soils of Croatia quite acidic, thirsty and barren” organized by the associations Green Istria and ODRAZ – Sustainable Development; the situation is quite bad “the alarm is on, an urgent reaction is needed”. On November 10, as part of the SOIL4LIFE project, the associations held an online conference on how to preserve the soil and with the aim of raising awareness of the problem of soil degradation and “stimulating decision makers for protection activities.” As Darko Znaor, an independent agri-environmental consultant, pointed out at the conference: “the soil is endangered, it is a resource that is not unlimited and is the foundation of our survival.” He presented some data on the state of the soil in Croatia, saying that there are as many as 65 types of land here, of which 54 percent are suitable for cultivation.

He warned that despite the constitutional provisions in Article 53 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, which stipulate that land and other natural resources have special protection, these provisions are not implemented at all. Znaor problematizes the fact that we ourselves recognized in the Bulletin – there is no data on the future of agriculture in Croatia at all. For the last three years, the bulletin has been unsuccessfully trying to analyze the topic of the future of food in Croatia with the perspectives of climate change. In those three years, we failed to find authors willing to analyze these topics. This information gives new negative implications to the whole topic. In a similar context, Znaor pointed out that “the quality of data on the state and efforts in soil protection has improved somewhat in recent years, but data are still scarce and fragmented: Out of a total of 30 soil condition indicators that should be monitored, Croatia monitors only a few, so that, for example, monitoring of biological indicators of soil quality is almost non-existent. The problem is that the data are not interpreted and analyzed, especially not over a long period of time in order to be able to conclude on trends (except for Osijek-Baranja County, which systematically monitors soil quality). There is also no critical review of the data to define the problem. Apart from public sector institutions, data are also collected by enthusiasts from academia and the private sector for commercial purposes. Key agricultural reports and strategies do not contain information on the state of the soil.”

Croatian agriculture is everything that should not be in the real social situation of the climate crisis. She is backward, reckless, spontaneous and neoliberal. Participants in the SOIL4LIFE project conclude that “it is necessary to create a range of policies, but also the pressure of civil society and the scientific community on policy makers, to take this into consideration and take concrete measures.” All forum participants agreed that it is necessary to intensively and continuously inform the public about all problems and dangers related to soil degradation and consumption and joint advocacy – science, practice, institutions and civil society organizations to decision makers.

But isn’t it devastating to have a state policy that needs to be controlled by public pressure even when it comes to something so basic that it really can’t be more basic: the future of food in Croatia. Isn’t it particularly angry that in the context of the latest Common Agricultural Policy, 80 percent of state subsidies for agriculture will go to the largest landowners, who are no longer even domestic owners after the collapse of Agrokor and who are currently implementing agricultural policies that have made our soils acidic and barren? Doesn’t the ultimate social irony lie in the fact that our praised fertile soils have become like our society: acidic, thirsty, and barren?

Source: bilten.org

 

 

 

Download PDF

LATEST NEWS

error: Content is protected !!