Peltopäivä Ruukki [Field day Ruukki]

Date 🗓️

16/08/2022 – 10:00 am- 4:00 pm 

Location 📍

Ruukki, Siikajoki

Organizer 🙎‍♀️

LUKE, Baltic sea action group

Participating CONSOLE Partner(s) 💡

LUKE

Link to the original web page of the event 📎

https://www.luke.fi/fi/node/20022

The European Commission has just drafted a new Nature Restoration Act (22 th June) that will be a key step towards nature restoration in all member countries. The aim of repairing 80% of habitats in poor environmental condition to restore nature in all ecosystems, including forests, agricultural land, marine ecosystems and urban environments.

The proposal, which takes the form of a draft regulation, defines a number of key concepts and sets legally binding targets for nature restoration by 2050. 

Because this law will help to ensure the resilience and safety of the food supply in the European Union and thus worldwide.

And this means that Member States will have to draw up their own national restoration plans and carry out the necessary work to identify the restoration measures needed to meet the targets and obligations.

Naturally, the Nature Restoration Act will apply to all Member States legally binding targets for nature restoration in different ecosystems that will complement existing legislation. 

According to the report presented by the conservation organisation WWF, the recovery of degraded natural spaces would favour the absorption of some 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This is equivalent to Spain’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

And according to press reports, there have been obstacles to the project, as there are entities that wanted to lower their restrictions, which has led to a continuous postponement of the presentation of the project.

As European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said “Some see war as a perfect excuse to curb” biodiversity and ecological farming practices.

On May 10th 2022, the Institute of Economics and Finance, organized organized a special session devoted to contracts for the provision of agri-environmental public goods in agriculture. The topics which were discussed during the event covered: the concept, scope and delivery of AECPG in agriculture, contract types, opinions of farmers and stakeholders in Poland and selected other EU countries on the possibilities of implementation of the contracts, and finally how to increase the prevalence of contracts for the provision of AECPG in agriculture in Europe. The main conclusions from the discussion were that possibilities and effectiveness of contracts largely depend on who will be the initiator and whether foreseen benefits will be satisfactory for farmers. The AECPG contract should provide an appropriate compensation for the farmer for his/her activities or obtained results. 

The River PO is known as one of the most important rivers in northern Italy, flowing, as if carefully drawn with a ruler, from west to east; from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea (652 kilometers), and empties into the delta near the city of Venice.

Well, this week, the media have echoed that it has presented a flow so low that its people can walk without getting wet and sunken ships appear.

This is the worst drought that this region has suffered in its last 70 years, with a more than significant reduction during the spring and an increase in temperatures in recent weeks (two degrees above the usual averages in the area).

And this drought makes those who live from agricultural production suffer and there is already talk of completely destroyed crops such as the “late tomato” or other vegetables that cannot even be planted without irrigation. Between 30% and 40% less melons and watermelons and 50% corn and soybeans are expected to be harvested due to problems, as well as in the harvesting of rice, which represents 50% of the country’s production.

Stefano Patuanelli himself, Minister of Agriculture, has stated that the declaration of a state of crisis is “inevitable”

For what is this?

According to a report published in March by the Copernicus World Drought Observatory, the severe drought in northern Italy and the PO River basin in particular is related to a persistent lack of rainfall since December 2021.

Severe rainfall deficits and low snow accumulation (40% below average 2009-2021 conditions) in the Southern Alps have contributed to low-water rivers. Drying of rivers in the area has made large swathes of the riverbed visible, so much so that a World War II-era German tank recently resurfaced.

On May 30, 2022, from the UNIBO and RER, organized the roadshow as part of the CONSOLE project.

The Roadshow started with a presentation by Giampietro Sabbatani, director of the host farm CAB Massari, a cooperative which is currently engaged with a wide range of agri-climate-environmental measures and with investment measures for environmental objectives of rural development. 

Then, the main results of the CONSOLE project have been presented by the University of Bologna. 

At the end of the presentations, a guided tour took place to show some ecological elements and practices (hedges, set aside for environmental scope, etc..); in particular, the following activities were illustrated: 

• no productive agricultural land like wetlands and other characteristic elements of the agricultural landscape such as groves and hedges, situated, since the 90s, among the cultivated fields, to separate organic production from conventional or integrated production; 
• combination of organic beet crops and mustard crops; 
• mowing grass to protect insects but also the production in the organic orchards; 
• Dairy cattle feeding without silage;
• production of organic fertilizers by recycling effluents and dedicate crops with biodigester.

During the buffet lunch, advantages and criticalities related to the interventions illustrated have been discussed.

The Roadshow opened with a presentation given by the director of the host farm CAB Massari. The latter is a cooperative currently engaging a large proportion of agricultural area in several agri-climate-environmental measures of rural development and investment measures for environmental objectives. Successively, the University of Bologna presented some of the main results of the CONSOLE project. Afterwards, a guided tour took place with the aim to show some activities and ecological endowments of the farm. The following activities were illustrated: the wetlands and the characteristic features of the agricultural landscape, such as groves and hedges that, since the 1990s, separate organic productions from conventional and/or integrated areas; the consociation between organic beet crops and mustard crops; organic orchards and organic farming; the production of organic milk without the use of silage. The event ended with a lunch that was an opportunity to discuss advantages and criticalities related to the illustrated interventions.