Agriculture

The figure shows the spatial variation in nitrogen (N) surplus (left map) and phosporus (P) surplus (right map) for all agricultural land in the EU-27 in 2010 (excluding the United Kingdom and Croatia). The surplus for N is calculated as the sum of N inputs to land (fertiliser, manure and biosolids, atmospheric N deposition, biological fixation and net mineralisation) minus crop removal (offtake). The surplus for P is calculdated as the sum of P inputs to land (fertiliser, manure and biosolids, atmospheric P deposition) minus crop removal (offtake). In the two maps, regions with higher N and P surpluses are coloured in shades of orange and red (with red colours representing N surpluses over 150 kg/ha/yr and P surpluses of 12 kg/ha/yr, respectively). Regions with lower N and P surpluses are shown in shades of green. N surpluses occur in nearly all regions, and are highest in areas with high livestock densities such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Brittany in France and the Po valley region in Italy. Because P is adsorbed by the soil, P surpluses can be negative in areas where crop uptake exceeds P input and P inputs are completely eliminated (so-called P mining), such as in parts of France, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The maps and the supporting information are adapted from De Vries, W., Romkens, P., Kros, H., Voogd, J.C.H., Schulte-Uebbing, L., 2022, Impacts of nutrients and heavy metals in European agriculture. Current and critical inputs in relation to air, soil and water quality, ETC-DI Report 2022/01, European Environment Agency.

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The European Commission has developed a set of risk indicators on chemical pesticides to track progress towards the Zero Pollution and Farm to Fork target for pesticide reduction. These indicators show that the risk and use of pesticides has decreased by 14% since the baseline period in 2015-2017.

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The figure shows aggregated time series for monitoring sites (surface waters) or water bodies (groundwater). Only complete time series are included. The selected time series are aggregated by averaging across all sites for each year.

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Wheat yield losses at country level, expressed in % of yield loss, aggregated from the regional NUTS2 level losses

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This data set show the European agriculture area in 2018 at 100m spatial resolution, covering EEA38 member countries and the United Kingdom. The raster value is 1 when agricultural area is identified and NoData for other land cover / land uses.

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The pan-European High-Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity product suite (HR-VPP) are provided at a high spatial resolution (10 m x 10 m) with a high repeat frequency. They are derived from the optical Sentinel-2 constellation data (Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B) with a revisit time of 5 days. They are generated over the entire EEA39 region (33 member countries and 6 cooperating countries) from January 1 2017 onwards, with a daily, 10-daily and yearly frequency (see below). The HR-VPP product suite contains 3 product groups, 31 product types, 1522 files and more than 900.000 tiles per year, which totals more than 80 Terra Bytes of data, per year.

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Greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector are covered by national annual emission targets. Between 2005 and 2019, the EU’s agriculture emissions remained stable. Current national projections only foresee a modest decline of 2% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and a 5% reduction with the implementation of currently planned measures. This projected progress remains largely insufficient and highlights the need for further action if Member States are to reach their binding annual targets and the EU its climate neutrality goal by 2050.

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Birds and butterflies are sensitive to environmental change and can indicate the health of the environment. Long-term monitoring shows significant declines in farmland birds and grassland butterflies. Between 1990 and 2019, the index of 168 common birds decreased by 8% in the 25 EU Member States with monitoring schemes. The decline in common farmland birds over the same period was much more pronounced at 27%, while the common forest bird index increased by 5%. Between 1991 and 2018 the grassland butterfly index also declined strongly, by 25%, in the 19 EU countries with monitoring data.

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The figure shows the spatial variation in nitrogen (N) surplus (left map) and phosporus (P) surplus (right map) for all agricultural land in the EU-27 in 2010 (excluding the United Kingdom and Croatia). The surplus for N is calculated as the sum of N inputs to land (fertiliser, manure and biosolids, atmospheric N deposition, biological fixation and net mineralisation) minus crop removal (offtake). The surplus for P is calculdated as the sum of P inputs to land (fertiliser, manure and biosolids, atmospheric P deposition) minus crop removal (offtake). In the two maps, regions with higher N and P surpluses are coloured in shades of orange and red (with red colours representing N surpluses over 150 kg/ha/yr and P surpluses of 12 kg/ha/yr, respectively). Regions with lower N and P surpluses are shown in shades of green. N surpluses occur in nearly all regions, and are highest in areas with high livestock densities such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Brittany in France and the Po valley region in Italy. Because P is adsorbed by the soil, P surpluses can be negative in areas where crop uptake exceeds P input and P inputs are completely eliminated (so-called P mining), such as in parts of France, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The maps and the supporting information are adapted from De Vries, W., Romkens, P., Kros, H., Voogd, J.C.H., Schulte-Uebbing, L., 2022, Impacts of nutrients and heavy metals in European agriculture. Current and critical inputs in relation to air, soil and water quality, ETC-DI Report 2022/01, European Environment Agency.

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The European Commission has developed a set of risk indicators on chemical pesticides to track progress towards the Zero Pollution and Farm to Fork target for pesticide reduction. These indicators show that the risk and use of pesticides has decreased by 14% since the baseline period in 2015-2017.

Read more

The figure shows aggregated time series for monitoring sites (surface waters) or water bodies (groundwater). Only complete time series are included. The selected time series are aggregated by averaging across all sites for each year.

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While emissions of methane across the European Union have decreased over past years, the overall reduction in emissions needs to accelerate to meet 2030 and 2050 EU climate objectives. Increased global efforts to reduce methane emissions would also be needed to mitigate global warming in the short term, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing on trends and drivers of methane emissions published today.

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Wheat yield losses at country level, expressed in % of yield loss, aggregated from the regional NUTS2 level losses

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This data set show the European agriculture area in 2018 at 100m spatial resolution, covering EEA38 member countries and the United Kingdom. The raster value is 1 when agricultural area is identified and NoData for other land cover / land uses.

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A profound rethink of how we produce food and operate global food chains and related industrial processing sectors is needed to make them resilient and sustainable. Much more must be done to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as well as their pressures on water resources and biodiversity — efforts which are currently almost stagnant — according to European Environment Agency (EEA) briefings on agriculture and food systems, published today.

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While global food chains, market competition, industrial processes and increasing productivity have turned agriculture into a profitable economic sector, it is also one of the biggest contributors to environmental and sustainability challenges in Europe and worldwide. In tandem, the COVID-19 pandemic, recent geopolitical developments in Europe and socio-economic trends have driven attention towards agriculture and food systems. Considering these new challenges, it is even more urgent to rethink agriculture and food systems to make them resilient and sustainable. This briefing reflects on what makes agriculture unsustainable today — and the types of agriculture we may want to preserve and support.

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While total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the EU have fallen by a third since 1990, reducing emissions in the agriculture sector has been a slower process and has stagnated since 2005. Based on EU countries’ current policies and measures, this trend is projected to continue, with only a 1.5% decrease expected between 2020 and 2040. This briefing explores two recent studies from the European Environment Agency (EEA) looking at current efforts to reduce emissions in the agriculture sector — and prospects for further reductions during the agri-food life cycle.

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The pan-European High-Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity product suite (HR-VPP) are provided at a high spatial resolution (10 m x 10 m) with a high repeat frequency. They are derived from the optical Sentinel-2 constellation data (Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B) with a revisit time of 5 days. They are generated over the entire EEA39 region (33 member countries and 6 cooperating countries) from January 1 2017 onwards, with a daily, 10-daily and yearly frequency (see below). The HR-VPP product suite contains 3 product groups, 31 product types, 1522 files and more than 900.000 tiles per year, which totals more than 80 Terra Bytes of data, per year.

Read more

Greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector are covered by national annual emission targets. Between 2005 and 2019, the EU’s agriculture emissions remained stable. Current national projections only foresee a modest decline of 2% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and a 5% reduction with the implementation of currently planned measures. This projected progress remains largely insufficient and highlights the need for further action if Member States are to reach their binding annual targets and the EU its climate neutrality goal by 2050.

Read more

Birds and butterflies are sensitive to environmental change and can indicate the health of the environment. Long-term monitoring shows significant declines in farmland birds and grassland butterflies. Between 1990 and 2019, the index of 168 common birds decreased by 8% in the 25 EU Member States with monitoring schemes. The decline in common farmland birds over the same period was much more pronounced at 27%, while the common forest bird index increased by 5%. Between 1991 and 2018 the grassland butterfly index also declined strongly, by 25%, in the 19 EU countries with monitoring data.

Read more