The Danube Regional Project (DRP) has been established to contribute to the sustainable human development in the Danube River Basin (DRB) through reinforcing the capacities in the basin to develop effective co-operation to ensure the protection of the Danube River. The DRP project is financed by UNDP and GEF and implemented by Danish consultancy agency Carl Bro. This project is designed to assist countries in the DRB develop policies that can mitigate these impacts and to ensure that any future changes to current agriculture regimes (e.g. introduction of CAP) are taken into consideration. The issue of Capacity building within a project should be achieved by strengthening the awareness and appreciation of agricultural issues for water managers within the basin. It is expected as additional objective achievement that the project will deliver a tools and arguments to both water and agriculture managers to understand the needs of each other and to encourage transfer of “know-how” at implementation phases. Whilst agriculture has an impact on a number of aspects of the environment, this project is primarily addressing problems with the impact of agriculture on water quality, specifically from agricultural use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers (including the use of manures), veterinary products, etc. (According to the Transboundary Analysis (1999) of the DRB, it is assumed that about half of the nutrients discharged in the Danube Basin to the river network come from agricultural non-point sources of pollution). The DRP has been organized into two complimentary phases and is now in its second phase.

The Phase 1 of the project (2002-2003) was specifically focusing on preparation and initiating of basin-wide capacity building activities with particular attention to the development ad implementation of policies for pollution reduction, effective legal and economic instruments, mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation, the creation of inter-ministerial committees as well as the development of programmes for public participation and NGO strengthening. Altogether 20 project components with a number of activities are being carried out thereby establishing a solid phase for the implementation of Phase 2 of the Project.

The Phase 2 of the Project (2004-2006) tends to set up institutional and legal instruments at the national and regional level to assure nutrient reduction and sustainable development of water bodies and ecological resources, involving all stakeholders and building up adequate monitoring and information systems.

The overall objective of this project is the reduction of pollution from agriculture. This is to be achieved by further developing the process of agriculture policy reform and by implementing pilot projects identified in the Phase I of the DRP.

This project is a continuation of work began in Phase I of the DRP and it is imperative that the outputs and outcomes from this initial phase are utilized and further developed. The Danube Regional Project, in its Phase 2 facilitates implementation of the Danube River Protection Convention in providing a framework for coordination, dissemination and replication of successful demonstration. The second phase of DRP project contains three key specific objectives:

• Analyses of Agriculture and related Policies
• Pilot project about Best Agriculture Practice (BAP)
• Training of trainers from Lower Danube River Basin countries in BAP

The Pilot project assists the DRB countries (especially in the lower Danube basin) with the development of pilot programmes for agricultural pollution reduction and low-input agriculture, in line with existing and emerging (driven by EU Accession) national environmental legislation. These Pilot projects reflect the concepts developed with the Agriculture Policy objective in a pilot project (Pilot policy and legal recommendations). It helps to introduce new relationships among national governments, local governments, agricultural community ( including agriculture extension services) and general public (different land users and society in general) in order to improve management practices in agriculture and to reduce nutrient loads. Specific needs to improve agricultural practices and relevant sites for demonstration activities on manure handling are in a process of identification in practical concepts for each DRB country. Focus countries for pilot projects (training and institutional development of best agriculture practice) is on Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Synergetic effect deriving from the Phase 2 is expected to contain following issues:

• Creation of sustainable ecological conditions for land use and management
• Capacity building and reinforcement of Transboundary cooperation for the improvement of water quality and environmental standards in the Danube River Basin
• Strengthening of public involvement in environmental decision making and reinforcement of community actions for pollution reduction and protection of ecosystems
• Reinforcement of monitoring, evaluation and information system to control Transboundary pollution and to reduce nutrients and harmful substances

Activities such as establishment of Pilot project Office in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, identification of Local partner organizations and Local experts in the 7 countries of the Lower Danube Basin and identification of pilot project demonstration farms in Serbia and Montenegro have been finalized. All beneficiary groups and stakeholders have been contacted and delivered with information about the project such as governmental institutions, extension services, agriculture enterprises, farmers and media on local, regional and national level.

The biggest fair of agriculture mechanization and new agriculture technologies in Denmark as well as the biggest annual fair of agriculture mechanization in Northern Europe, AGROMEK, was visited by the group of farmers from Vojvodina included in a pilot project. Farmers had a chance to introduce themselves with 530 exhibitors from the whole world, which also presented 232 new products. AGROMEK fair presents a forum of the latest accomplishments of agriculture technique, equipment and technologies, deriving from approximately 30 countries.

During the six-day professional excursion from 16. - 21. January 2006, visitors of AGROMEK fair had a chance to meet Danish advisory service. Farmers from Vojvodina attended a numerous presentations of BAP (best agriculture practice) logistics with recommendations for adequate usage of machinery, equipment and technologies in order to obtain the ideal results in agriculture relying on BAP logistic. Our farmers have also visited a typical Danish livestock farm. They were pleasantly surprised by the innovations and standard of Danish farmers which gave them additional motivation to implement gathered knowledge in Vojvodina’s landscape.

Many of the farmers expressed a great interest to establish cooperation with Danish advisory and credit institutions as well as purchasing agriculture equipment and mechanization which they were introduced with. The organization of a visit to AGROMEK fair, besides foreign institutions, was supported by the Institute of Agriculture in Zrenjanin and Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture in Novi Sad.

On the 24th of January, workshop”Good agriculture practice and pilot project” was organized for farmers in Lukino village in Vojvodina. Besides farmers candidates for pilot project, workshop gathered other farmers from Vojvodina region and representatives from: big local farms, Republic Ministry of Agriculture, Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture in Vojvodina, advisory services, Media and pilot project stuff from Denmark and Serbia. The main goal of workshop was the presentation and adoption of BAP (best agriculture practice) strategy as a mode of becoming competitive on a market and becoming a environmentally friendly.

Key step of pilot project was to make connections between all workshop participants. This is a ground basis for future cooperation using BAP that brings bigger efficiency in agriculture, economic growth and product quality improvement. Obtained workshop results are following: making a list of agriculture problems in Vojvodina which could be solved by pilot project, final selection of farmers included in the pilot project, potential cooperation model draft, concept development of BAP application, research initiation, plan for further financial support of project participants and BAP campaign.

Materials for the workshop in Lukino Selo with the pilot farms etc. were prepared and presented:

• PowerPoint presentation on Best Agricultural Practices - background, history, definition and future
• First outline of booklet on Best Agricultural practices, including definition of BAP and formulation of 15 concrete BAP’s that we will work with in the project.

The formulation of an agreement with the pilot farms.

Seminar conducted in the Institute for Agriculture in Zrenjanin, Vojvodina was dedicated to balancing of feed for pig and cattle and to determination of the main problems of animal feeding in this area of Serbia. About 35 participants, farmers included in a project and agriculture advisors, took part in the seminar. The seminar was conducted by two Serbian experts as well as Mr. Henning Lyngsoe Foged, Agriculture adviser from Denmark.

  Feeding of cattle and pigs ENG (2.2Mb)

  Feeding of cattle and pigs SER (2.2Mb)

  Feeding of cattle - Miodrag (1Mb)

  Some aspects from feeding of pigs - dr.Branislav Zivkovic (820kb)

Representatives from 7 lower Danube Countries (Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine) participated the workshop. The main goal of the workshop was training of trainers for BAP presentation and implementation in their home countries. Participants presented agriculture situation, Dissemination and education and Agriculture and Environmental legislation in their own countries.

Recommendations and proposed actions evolved from the workshop:

• National pilot projects -Similar BAP pilot projects is urgently needed in the 6 other lower Danube countries, to show in practice how to implement BAP in a way that corresponds to the local condition, and to demonstrate the benefits of BAP implementation for both the environment and the farm economy.
• Financial support for BAP-Support for building of storage tanks and equipment for bringing out manure from livestock farms are investments which very few farmers can afford without subsidies.
• Extension service- Training of the employees and economic support for extension services is urgently needed. Private farmers should be involved in their own farm advice system. It is recommended that farmers require advisers directly from the different offices of the extension service, and pay a part of the cost.
• Illegal trade with pesticides- The regulations on impart sale and use of pesticides has to be enforced.
• Data about the situation in agriculture (Statistics /Monitoring of soil and water)- Access to reliable data about the status and activities in agriculture is crucial for preparing and implementing action plans for improving the situation, decision making and public involvement. Statistics needs to be improved. Efficient Monitoring programmes to show the influence of agricultural activities on soil and water has to implemented.

Seminar was conducted concerning design and construction of manure stores. Six farmers who are foreseen to build manure stores took part, as well as architect from Institute for Animal Husbandry in Belgrade.

Seminar covered following subjects:

• Estimation of necessary manure storage capacity.
• Estimation of price, financing and subsidies.
• Design and construction.
• Time schedule.
• Farmer cooperation. This point is especially related with the machinery for handling livestock manure.

Necessary assistance was provided to the farmers with the drawings for the subsidy application to Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management, and divided on the 6 farms.

Following the signing of an agreement with “Zrenjanian Agricultural Institute” in Vojvodina training of the advisors covering following topics:

• nutrient balance calculations
• field and fertiliser planning
• pesticide planning, including test of field sprayers, personal protection and use of reduced doses

The relevant staffs of the Institute were trained to advise and assist pilot farms and other farms in the mentioned matters.

The pilot farmers were presented for nutrient balance calculations as well as preliminary field and fertiliser plans and trained in pesticide planning, including test of field sprayers, personal protection and use of reduced doses.

  Analysis of current national legislation about Fertilizers, Manure and Pesticides (including sections on DRB EU member states) (TR I)(436Kb)

  Review of agrochemical inventories and Recommendations for reducing impact of agrochemicals (TRII-V) (728Kb)

  Recommendations for BAP and introduction of concepts for the application of BAP in the lower DRB countries (TR III-IV) (966Kb)

  Detailed work programme for Pilot Project (TR VI) (2.6Mb)

  ICPDR Workshop WFD and Agriculture April 2006 General (1.1Mb)

  ICPDR Workshop WFD and Agriculture April 2006 Pilot Project (3.3Mb)

  ICPDR Workshop WFD and Agriculture April 2006 Training (3.3Mb)

  DRP-agriculture Peter Whaley (691kb)

  Workshop Agr Belgrade WFD and CAP Mihaela Popovic (1.1Mb)

  Introduction to the project Jesper Ansbaek (355kb)

  Analysis of current national legislation Jesper Ansbaek (746kb)