The impacts of agricultural payments on groundwater quality: Spatial analysis on the case of Slovenia |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Statistical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Italy;2. Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Italy;1. Brazilian National Institute for Research in the Amazon, Laboratory of Ecophysiology and Molecular Evolution, Ave André Araújo 2936, 69083-000 Manaus, AM, Brazil;2. Biosciences Institute, São Paulo State University – UNESP, Coastal Campus, Pça Infante Dom Henrique s/n°, P.O. Box 73601, 11380-972, São Vicente, SP, Brazil;3. Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, P.O. Box U1987, Perth, 6102, Western Australia, Australia;1. State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resource and Prospecting, College of Geosciences, China Petroleum University, Beijing, 102249, China;2. UNBC, University of North British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada;3. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China;4. Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities, University of Regina, 120, 2 Research Drive, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 7H9, Canada;5. Beijing Engineering Research Center for Watershed Environmental Restoration & Integrated Ecological Regulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;6. School of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agriculture University, Beijing 100083, China |
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| Abstract: | The European Common Agricultural Policy still follows its primary goals, i.e. quality food at affordable prices and a decent standard of living for farmers, fifty years after its adoption. Moreover, this policy adapts to the changing needs of society and the new challenges, mostly preservation of the environment, nature and biodiversity in rural areas. Although the Common Agricultural Policy receives the largest share of European budget, the funds are decreasing over time, especially direct payments, which aim to provide basic income support to farmers in the European Union. On the other hand, agri-environmental payments are gaining importance. Policy decision-makers should be interested in the question of impacts of growing eco-conditionality of agricultural spending. New insights would help them to be successful in achieving the goals of sustainable agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impacts of production support payments and rural development payments on the quality of groundwater. We use the small EU country Slovenia as an example. The baseline indicators are the level of nitrates and pesticides in groundwater, while the impacts were estimated using spatial error model. The results show that direct payments, coupled subsidies and investment grants raise the level of pesticides in groundwater, but do not have any statistically significant impact on the level of nitrates in groundwater. Furthermore, we did not find any statistically significant effects of agri-environmental payments on decrease of groundwater pollution with nitrates. However, our findings revealed that agri-environmental payments are effective in reducing pesticides in groundwater, although only to a limited extent. These results imply a problem of insufficient targeting of agri-environmental measures on the one hand, and suggest that greening of direct payments is necessary and entirely justified. |
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| Keywords: | Common agricultural policy Agricultural payments Nitrates Pesticides Groundwater quality Spatial panel model |
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