Long-Term Study of Agri-Environmental Monitoring Highlights Ecological Progress  

Indicators from a 14-year monitoring programme show improvements in climate, water, soil and food supply.

Agriculture impacts the environment and natural resources in multiple ways – from nutrient inputs and plant protection products to tillage and the support of biodiversity. At the same time, it relies on intact ecosystems to enable sustainable production. Thus, continual monitoring of these environmental impacts is vital to observe trends and ensure that agricultural policy targets based on the Sustainability Ordinance are met.

Agri-environmental impacts: long-term data from a farm network

Switzerland uses various monitoring programmes, which either measure environmental statuses directly or record environmental impacts indirectly using agri-environmental indicators. Detailed farm data were collected from around 300 farms over a 14-year period and used to calculate agri-environmental indicators enabling regional conclusions to be drawn. An innovative statistical method produced reliable time series, even though the participating farms varied from year to year.

Mostly positive trends for environmental indicators

Most of the 13 indicators improved over time. Particularly significant progress was observed in the use of plant protection products (-31%), the humus balance (+25%) and the nitrogen balance (-11%). These trends indicate that management practices are becoming more environmentally friendly. The energy produced for human consumption also increased over time. Thus, it is clear that improvements to environmental impacts were not at the expense of food supply.

Comparison with national trends shows similarities and differences

Four of the indicators studied have national equivalents. These national indicators are based on other data and permit independent validation of the farm network indicators. While ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions follow similar trends to the farm network, the phosphorus balance time series differs considerably. These differences can be attributed to the composition of the farm network (focus on dominant farm types) and to the uncertainties of individual data bases (e.g. grassland yields). With the new Monitoring of the Swiss Agri-Environmental System (MAUS), which combines existing data with its own surveys, a partial improvement in the alignment between regional and national monitoring is to be expected in future.