Club of bologna proceedings

2. Forces for change arising from ec
o
nomics 
and politics 
These forces will I believe be dominated in
agriculture by a need to reduce the unit cost of 
production while minimising enviro
n
mental 
impacts. This is mirrored by the 
o 
bjectives of 
Agenda 2000 in increased co
m
petitiveness and 
the setting of environmental goals. We have seen 
that labour costs are unlikely to diminish in the 
long term, so we are faced with affecting a major 
reduction in inputs to reduce costs. In terms of 
soil ma nagement and cultivation I do not believe 
this conflicts with minimising environmental
impacts. Environmental issues revolve around
energy use, waste minimisation, pollution control 
and sustainability. Research has shown that
concentration on soil health will
address most if 
not all of these issues. For example, some
researchers [1; 2; 3] have shown that imposing 
high forces on the soil accelerates organic matter 
mineralisation (
Fig.
 1
 
) and at the same time
destabilises soil structure. It will be argued that 
this is not sustainable, since with organic matter 
depletion soils will be further degraded and crop 
production compromised. We must therefore
actively seek ways of reducing energy
i 
nputs. 
This in turn means that growers may have to
accept and manage more 
r 
isk, and to do this 
successfully, they will have to 
i 
ncrease their
knowledge and expertise. Cu
r
rently, most
farmers adopt tried and trusted techniques which 
provide them with a rel
i
able return. These in
many cases may not be the cheapest production 
methods, but in ge neral they avoid failures. The 
challenge within ours, the supporting industry, is 
to provide them firstly with the tools to minimise 
their inputs effectively, and secondly, the
technology and decision support which will allow 

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them to operate their systems with minimum risk and 
pollution potential. In addition, these must be 
delivered in such a way that neither crop yield nor soil 
health are compromised. As mentioned above, I don’t 
believe these are conflicting requirements and our 
industry has the tools at its fingertips, through 
carefully targeted 
development, to rise to the challenge.