AgriBMPWater - system approach to environmentally acceptable farming : results in the perspective of potential users as farmers, land managers and water directors

A comparison between different existing or simulated BMPs has been carried out through a cost/effectiveness assessment along with the study of their acceptability by farmers on eight European watersheds in a multidisciplinary framework involving eleven research teams. Water quality problems encountered and dealt with in this project for all eight watersheds include: high nitrate loads and concentrations at the outlet of the two western French watersheds associated with dairy production, high loads of phosphorus into lake Vico (Italy) associated with hazelnut plantations, high nitrate concentration in groundwater for two watersheds in Austria and Italy, high sediment loads at the outlet of a second Austrian watershed, acid water associated with artificial drainage of moraine soils in Finland, pesticide contamination in Norway.The comparison of different BMPs for a given watershed is built as a 6 steps framework :step 1 : describing the watershed, the general problematic (including the objective of the different actors) and of the main water quality problems. .step 2 : describing and computing the hydrology. Description of the model used, calibration and validation of the model, definition of critical areas and risky practices, assessment of their impact on total fluxes or concentrations, deduction of proposed BMPs, assessment of the ex ante effectiveness of each BMP.step 3 : describing the economics. Description of the diversity of farms, choice of the model to represent this diversity, results of model implementation (does this model provide an acute description of the statu quo situation ?), assessment of the consequences on introducing BMPs and ex ante cost of this introduction.step 4 : assessing the results of steps 2 and 3 to a cost/efficiency ratio for each BMP.step 5 : interviewing the farmers to assess the acceptability for each BMP.step 6 : comparing of the cost/efficiency ratio and the acceptability to build a selection grid.