Environmental Aspects of Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Agricultural policy in the European Union at Community level, as well as in the member states, increasingly emphasises the issue of sustainable agriculture. The pursuit of climate neutrality requires a reduction in emissions from agricultural sources. Above all, it is necessary to fully exploit the potential of agricultural and forestry areas to increase carbon sequestration in biomass and soil, optimise systems for the storage, transport and use of livestock manure, and significantly improve energy efficiency and increase the share of renewable energy in plant and livestock production. Rural areas, and in particular agriculture, are also seen as one of the main and important sources of pollution and eutrophication of water. Determining the correct way to assess the degree of sustainability of farms requires objective and feasible to determine measures and indicators of socioeconomic-environmental sustainability and a lot of analysis, methodological and practical research. To date, no uniform set of sustainability indicators has been developed and their selection depends on data availability.