Environmental Impacts of Agriculture

The paper presents the results of an analysis on recorded discharges in eight catchments located in Norway, Estonia and Latvia. Different parameters were calculated with the objective to describe the socalled intensity or "flashiness" in hydrology for the respective catchments. The calculations were performed on both hourly and average daily discharge values, in many cases leading to significant differences in the results. The obtained results suggest considering the inclusion of hourly discharges for both design purposes and the interpretation of nutrient and soil loss processes, especially in agricultural catchments having large diurnal variations in discharge. In the light of expected climate changes, the hydrological characterisation based on hourly discharge values provides improved information about the diurnal variations and extremes in catchment runoff.

Soil tillage is an important factor affecting soil fertility properties and crop yield. Tillage impact certain soil physical and chemical properties such as bulk density, soil porosity and water-holding capacity, infiltration rates, hydraulic conductivity, soil temperature, soil organic carbon, pH, CEC, available nitrogen, phosphorus and exchangeable potassium amongst others. The main objective of the present work was to compare the effect of no-tillage systems and the conventional tillage systems. Tillage systems can be generally categorized into plow tillage (conventional tillage), reduced tillage using chisel plow, disc plow, harrow disc or cultivators and no-till systems. Conservation tillage and its various types generally improve the soil quality indicators including soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. Whereas, conventional tillage practices give birth to a finer and loose-setting soil structure with a modified soil bulk density and soil moisture content, hence, causing loss of...

The present study is focused on the Lake Shkodra’s Basin which includes the municipalities and communes around the Lake. The Shkodra lake basin is distinguished for its diverse and dynamic natural and human resources. It is a border Region and it extends itself along the shores of Shkodra/Skadar Lake with access to the sea and many water resources. These advantages have promoted the early development of this Region and have been exploited in the past to transform it into a progressive economic and social milieu standing out compared to other regions. It is beyond argument that the issue of safeguarding the biodiversity and the landscape of Shkodra/Skadar Lake is inseparable from farming as the performance of this latter is primarily dependent on the status of natural resources and at the same time affects the surrounding environment, the diversity and stability of natural ecosystems. On the other hand, rural people in this Region have to make their living principally from agriculture in the future, too.
While agriculture in this Region should be and still has the potential to become an engine for economic growth, the combination of past exploitation and the slow pace of economic reforms are major obstacles to implementing sustainable agricultural policies. Given the right policies and appropriate economic incentives, it may be possible for this Region to improve its future agricultural outputs while making the sector economically efficient, socially acceptable and environmental friendly. The main strategic directions for increasing farm revenues in the rural areas surrounding the Lake, taking into account the tradition and the development trends of private farms, should focus on adapting the agricultural production to the development of agro-tourism, in order to exploit the opportunities offered by the nature of the region to this kind of business; increasing the number of associations of rural areas production and services in order to strengthen cooperation among producers and encourage better marketing.
Organic farming is a rapidly growing and promising sector of European agriculture, which favours high biodiversity and nature conservation. Organic farming sector in Albania is emerging. However, beside the limited growth in terms of surface under organic management and number of organic farmers, there is a growing trend in the perception of organic food as well as sympathy among farmers regarding organic production methods.
In the future the spreading of organic farms and of organic agriculture will succeed in the conditions of an institutional framework and the development capacity of the market for organic products. The institutional framework must stimulate and sustain the Albanian agricultural producers in developing this type of agriculture, because there is an important external demand and, in addition, through Albanian consumers’ education (which have the tendency to consume “natural products ”).