Agriculture

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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This figure shows the trends in nitrate in European groundwater and rivers and the trends in phosphorus in European lakes and rivers.

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• Total water input is expressed in m3/ha and gross value added is expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS)/ha, where the area in ha represents the sum of arable land and land with permanent crops. The monetary unit being used (PPS) accounts for purchasing power differences among countries. Theoretically, one PPS can buy the same amount of goods and services in each country. • Water use intensity of crop production is classified at the regional level according to the quartile (Q) distribution of all time series (2005-2016): below Q1 (light blue) indicates a low water intensity of crop production; above Q3 (dark blue) indicates a high water intensity of crop production; and between Q1 and Q3 (mid-blue) indicates a moderate water intensity of crop production. • Regional groupings of EU Member States and the UK are based on UN Geoscheme — Standard M49: eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), northern Europe (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and the United Kingdom), southern Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) and western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). • Gap filling has been performed for certain years and countries: 2010 data have been used for 2011 Greece data; 2006 data have been used for 2007 Hungary data; 2005 data have been used for 2007 Luxembourg data; 2009 data have been used for 2010 Portugal data; 2015 data have been used for 2016 Sweden data.

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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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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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This figure shows the trends in nitrate in European groundwater and rivers and the trends in phosphorus in European lakes and rivers.

Read more

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• Total water input is expressed in m3/ha and gross value added is expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS)/ha, where the area in ha represents the sum of arable land and land with permanent crops. The monetary unit being used (PPS) accounts for purchasing power differences among countries. Theoretically, one PPS can buy the same amount of goods and services in each country. • Water use intensity of crop production is classified at the regional level according to the quartile (Q) distribution of all time series (2005-2016): below Q1 (light blue) indicates a low water intensity of crop production; above Q3 (dark blue) indicates a high water intensity of crop production; and between Q1 and Q3 (mid-blue) indicates a moderate water intensity of crop production. • Regional groupings of EU Member States and the UK are based on UN Geoscheme — Standard M49: eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), northern Europe (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and the United Kingdom), southern Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) and western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). • Gap filling has been performed for certain years and countries: 2010 data have been used for 2011 Greece data; 2006 data have been used for 2007 Hungary data; 2005 data have been used for 2007 Luxembourg data; 2009 data have been used for 2010 Portugal data; 2015 data have been used for 2016 Sweden data.

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Pesticides can end up in rivers, lakes and groundwaters, with potential to harm aquatic ecosystems and water quality. The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) new indicator, which aims to track Europe’s progress in reducing pesticides in waters, shows that excessive levels of pesticides have been recorded in a considerable share of European freshwaters.

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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