Workshop at the EXPO Milan 2015: 'Best practices in improving the sustainability of agriculture'

Workshop at the EXPO Milan 2015: 'Best practices in improving the sustainability of agriculture'

The theme of EXPO Milan 2015 is “Feeding the planet, Energy for life”. In this context, the workshop will showcase best practices to improve the environmental performance of the agricultural sector in three key areas:

• Soil quality management: Maintaining good soil quality is critical for resource-efficient farming. Avoiding soil degradation represents a crucial component of resource efficiency.
• Nutrient management planning: Nutrients are often applied significantly above the economic and environmental optimum level, owing to inadequate accounting for organic and soil nutrient supplies when calculating synthetic fertiliser application rates.
• Irrigation: Water use is a major environmental pressure exerted by agriculture in dry areas. It is thus crucial to calculate crop water requirements effectively, and carefully choose the water delivery equipment used.

The workshop will summarise the main outcomes of a 2-year collaboration between many experts from the sector and the JRC, in the framework of developing of an EMAS Sectoral Reference Document on Best Environmental Management Practice for the agriculture sector.

Participation is free (registration required).