Spatial disparity and environmental issues of organic agriculture
Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics, Struktoru street 14, LV-1039 Riga, Latvia
*Correspondence: maija.usca@arei.lv
Abstract:
Food systems are major drivers of such global environmental problems as a decrease in biodiversity, degradation and fragmentation of habitats, use of fertilizers and pesticides, and water pollution. To deal with the environmental issues caused by agriculture at the European level, agri-environmental measures, including organic agriculture, through Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are introduced to alleviate the detrimental impacts of agriculture. As it is still not clear whether agri-environmental measures, including organic agriculture, contribute unambiguously to the goals set by the CAP and the impact of organic agriculture on water quality is of high uncertainty, this study aims to analyse the spatial disparity of organic land and its impact on the environment by probing into the connection between the location of organic lands and water quality. The paper is based on a study of spatial analyses of organically managed land, its structure, and its relation to water bodies with a significant load of dispersed pollution from agriculture as well as the statistical analysis of the relationship between organic agriculture and water quality. The research was carried out in Latvia and done on a national level. This paper highlights the necessity for a more goal-oriented approach to the implementation of specific CAP measures as well as gives a deeper understanding of a specific CAP measure – organic agriculture. The statistical analysis of the data confirms that the management of arable land with organic farming methods has the potential to contribute to improving and preserving surface water quality.
Key words:
common agricultural policy (CAP), Eastern Europe, environment, Latvia, organic agriculture, spatial disparity, water pollution