by PressThe catastrophe of agriculture in the EU: the reasons for the decline in production
Experts: an agricultural catastrophe is possible in the EU
The EU is actively pursuing an environmental strategy, tightening requirements for greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the EU acts quite aggressively, which negatively affects various industries. Experts note that an agricultural disaster is possible because of the so-called «Green Deal». Compliance with environmental regulations will lead to a decrease in the income of producers, while the cost of products will continue to grow.
The reason for this situation is the fact that to reduce emissions the agrarians are transferring their facilities to other countries. At the same time, the government is considering a bill to impose additional duties on imports of products that were produced in regions with worse environmental conditions than in the EU.
In turn, analysts presented a document outlining the impact of green strategy on the development of agriculture and trade in products. It says that the plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions companies achieve primarily through the transfer of its plants in other countries. However, this way out on a global scale is not effective. While in the EU emissions have fallen by 70%, worldwide they have increased, also due to the transfer of production facilities. The second way to follow the green course is the option of modernizing the structure of enterprises and optimizing internal processes, but in this case it takes longer to achieve the result.
For its part, the U.S. Department of Agriculture investigated the reasons for the migration of agricultural companies from the territory of the European Union. Analysts point out that the leakage of production capacity is due to the fact that the EU states are practically the only ones that introduce such measures. Therefore, their efforts are ineffective on a global scale.
However, EU scientists continue to look for other ways to reduce emissions. One of them is to switch to plant-based products, for which a decrease in the demand for meat must be stimulated. In addition, the problem of food waste, which increases every year, must be solved. Such measures will reduce imports, which at the moment compensate for the lack of domestic production.
Experts predict a 4% decrease in acreage for grain crops. At the same time, one should expect an 11% reduction in yields, which is due to the use of less fertilizer and plant preparations. The drop in production will amount to approximately 44 million tons in Germany, which is the second largest crop in the European Union. However, even though spending on fertilizer and crop protection has decreased, farmers have to spend more on weed control products.
According to the «green» goals, 25% of the cultivated area in the region should be under organic farming. Now the share of such land is a little over 8%.