Region

South Moravian and Central Bohemian region, The Czech Republic, are agricultural regions neighbouring the capital city (Central Bohemian region) or the second biggest city Brno (South Moravian region). Both regions (Central Bohemia and South Moravia Region) cope with water scarcity, and adjusting conservation tillage to local conditions is, therefore, a big challenge. More than 50% of arable land in the Czech Republic is at risk of erosion. A national strategy exists to introduce the obligatory use of conservation tillage on an increasing area by 2030. Although the concept and awareness of conservation tillage is not new, there have been many obstacles to adoption of the innovation.

Study focus

This study focused on the implementation of conservation tillage. Due to the past communist policy, where the merging of plots and removing of hedges and ditches was required, a high percentage of Czech agricultural area is endangered by erosion. Even though the Ministry of Agriculture deals with this problem and has introduced several regulations, the erosion risk area remains a big challenge for the whole Czech agriculture. The type of agricultural holdings involved in the conservation tillage case study consisted of 41 % private farmers with an average farm size of 1 624 hectares.

The majority of the land on these farms was rented. In the Czech Republic, many measures were introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture to fulfil the CAP cross-compliance obligations (e.g. the requirement for soil protection). Some of them of these measures were based on organizational changes (e.g. shape of a parcel, crop rotation), others are based on agro-technical measures (such as no-tillage, sub-tillage, sowing into intercrops). Some farmers adopted the innovation of conservation tillage specifically to fulfil the cross-compliance requirements, including substantial investments in new machinery.

The full report (in English) is here

Partner and responsible person contact

UZEI

Martin Mistr, dr.mistr@gmail.com

Lessons learned

1. Most farmers are specialists. They have a wide range of information, overview, and knowledge in conservation tillage. Many of them were pioneers, who started the innovation process several years ago due to a lack of labour sources. Some of them hadn’t found an appropriate independent advisory body and cooperated with suppliers, researchers, or other farmers to carry out their own research (such as trial experiments on the farm, monitoring on the field etc.).
2. The advisory service system is provided by universities, research institutes, and farmers’ unions. They all are very active in the awareness stage. Workshops and seminars are organized and many outputs from research projects are presented. Research institutes are involved in the national program “Support of Demonstrations Farms”, where some procedures are shown directly on the spot. Many researchers and advisors working at universities and research institutes are well known and respected experts, and they disseminate their research outcomes via booklets, handouts, or national agricultural journals.
3. The lack of available independent advisory services was the reason in some cases why some farmers implement innovation with the help of suppliers. Farmers take advantage of the willingness of suppliers to lend machinery for farmers to test before making any investment.
4. Accredited advisors play the main role in the transfer of long-term information about state requirements. They are periodically trained by ministry staff and researchers. However, accredited advisors without an additional source of innovation experience (such as research, farm field experiments, EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, or supplier development centres) have little chance to contribute to the practical innovation process on the farm.
5. Lack of coordination and methodological support within the agricultural knowledge and innovation system is the main obstacle. Many advisors and farmers stressed this fact. In addition, farmers have missed consistency and a long-lasting direction of the agricultural policy and the related law. These uncertainties were one of the most significant gaps and barriers for farmers to innovate.