Summary
The initiative called “water protection bread (Wasserschutzbrot)” is led by the government of Lower Franconia and has started in 2014 with one water supplier, one farmer, one mill, and one bakery. Today, in 2019, 32 farmers are participating. The farmers deliver the wheat to the mills that are processing it to flour for regional bakeries, keeping it separated from other wheat. The bakeries sell the bakery product labelled with a special label. Eligible are farmers who farm land in drinking water abstraction areas from a public water supplier and/or in water sensible areas. They renounce late fertilisation of wheat that is heavily criticised from the point of view of groundwater protection and guarantee applying a maximum of 160 kg N/ha. This allows to significantly reduce the nitrogen surpluses in the soil and to avoid leaching to groundwater. Wheat from selected varieties has good baking properties despite a lower protein content of 11-11,5% instead of 13%. A communication campaign targeted at the consumers is part of the initiative to inform about the importance of clean ground- and drinking water as well as the possibility to contribute to it by buying bakery products from this wheat in more than 100 selling points.
Objectives
- The aim is the protection of ground and drinking water through a sustainable and regional value chain. Reducing the nitrogen load in groundwater is hereby in the foreground.
Public Goods
Problem description
Problems with the groundwater quality arise in areas with high agricultural intensity combined with low precipitation rates, a low groundwater recharge rate and in parts very shallow soils. The government from Lower Franconia has started the initiative as a response to it; today it includes as well Central and Upper Franconia.
