 Dear
farmers,
In Your arms – new publication that has an aim to help You in Your
daily uneasy work.
You won't find answers to all actual questions in this book, because the
best answers are dictated by agricultural experience, supported by
scientific studies. You will have to look for your own solution under
conditions of your concrete farm, but the rules and recommendations on
good farming presented here will help you to find the best of them.
We are witnesses and participants of big changes in countryside. Present
farmers generation had an historic responsibility to accept changes in
market economy: to restructure and modernise agricultural sector, to
change agricultural regulation measures gradually and in very short time
to learn to compete in world market with rich countries famous for their
agricultural traditions.
More than half of the Lithuanian territory is agricultural lands;
therefore, farming quality determines not only living conditions and
income, but authenticity of landscape and biological diversity too.
In the Code of Good Agricultural Practices there are accumulated
knowledge and recommendations for farmers how to preserve environment
with help of modern technologies, to determine the amount and type of
nutrients needed for agricultural production, what are the best
technologies of soil tillage, plant protection and animal breeding, and
use of fertilisation, liming and pesticides.
Farming is the lifestyle inherited from ancestors. Land is needed for
people in countryside not only as an income source. Countryside
community has distinctive lifestyle, preservation of its identity is an
important condition for survival of the nation, necessary part of its
culture. People in countryside spend almost their whole life on their
land; therefore, landscape has to be attractive for them to live and for
others to come.
Edvardas MAKELIS
Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania |
 Dear
farmers,
Many developed countries have already been convinced that
intensification of production leads to a limit when additional
investments do not give possible production' and economic effect but
impoverishes environment and injures human health. Therefore,
economically and ecologically balanced development is the only human
progress way; it is emphasised in many documents of the European Union.
Pollution sources in agriculture are dispersed over big territory and
usually not noticed. Therefore, many think that agricultural activity
does not influence environmental quality. But scientific investigations
show that about 50-60% of nitrogen and 10-20% of phosphorus present in
Lithuanian rivers originate in agriculture.
Lithuania as other members of the Helsinki Convention has promised to
reduce nitrogen and phosphorus load to the Baltic Sea by 50%. In this
area amendment of agricultural production should be the most important.
In any other branches of economy such a big environmental improvement
can not be achieved with small investments. Besides, properly managed
agriculture adorns landscape, increases biological diversity and makes
countryside more attractive for tourists and holidaymakers.
In the European Union the Nitrate Directive is emphasising the
significance of the Code of Good Agricultural Practices for improvement
of water quality. The improvement of water quality is also of highest
priority in the Lithuanian environmental protection strategy. Therefore,
appliance of the rules and recommendations given in this book will be
important Lithuanian step in the way of sustainable development.
Danius LYGIS
Minister of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania |
