Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/456325
www.potatogrower.com 27 GeoCropical ® Solutions F O R I R R I G A T I N G P O T A T O E S MORE AT NELSONIRRIGATION.COM / Tel: +1 509.525.7660 / Fax: +1 509.525.7907 CENTER PIVOT WHEEL LINE SOLID SET R33 Rotator ® Direct 3/4" Impact Replacement New "Fine Droplet" Plate for O3000 Pivot Orbitor Big Gun ® & 800P Valve NEW! LOW PRESSURE R55A (15-30 PSI) R3000 Pivot Rotator ® Provides Highest Uniformity Numbers NEW! LOW PRESSURE SPECIFY NELSON ON BOARD 145660NelIrr12h.indd 1 12/10/14 9:11 AM MORE SPACE FOR NATURE Europe's Common Agricultural Policy aims to narrow the gap between agriculture and nature. Ecological focus areas are among the measures designed to do this. These will apply starting in 2015. One example will require farmers to keep sections of land between fields free from crop protection products and fertilizers. The areas could take any number of forms. They might be strips of land where flowers are allowed to grow, fallow land, or wooded sections planted with trees and bushes. Farmers who own over 15 hectares of agricultural land will have to dedicate 5 percent of it to ecological focus areas. "We've also seen more endangered species take up residence here," adds Oppermann. Meanwhile, in the unaltered control areas, the number of species stagnated. The researchers observed the same thing with butterflies. "The entire ecological food web benefits when there are more species," says Oppermann. "Birds, for instance, will have more insects to eat." And even farmers stand to benefit from the measures, as areas of wildflowers also attract predatory insects that can kill off agricultural pests like aphids. The project is now being extended. "We want to examine if we can transfer this model to large-scale farms in eastern Germany," says Belinda Giesen-Druse, who will be coordinating the project at Bayer CropScience. "We'll soon be sowing flowering plants on two farms there." The measures will be combined with ecological focus areas—sections of fields that are not treated with fertilizers or crop protection products, for instance. These will be obligatory for all EU farmers starting in 2015. "We want to work with farmers to investigate how to best set up flowered areas and, possibly, other measures in order to achieve the most promising results," says Giesen-Druse. Oppermann is especially happy about this: "It's an important step, and the right one," he says. "After all, for the measures to be implemented, they must be convincing and produce results." PG Belinda Giesen-Druse This article originally appeared in the first issue of Bayer CropScience's BeeNow magazine in December 2014.