Pavol Stehlo
Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, Bratislava
and
Karol Kováč,
Plant Production Research Institute, Piešťany
Introduction
The impact
of transition and structure of property rights
The impact
of agriculture on the Environment
The influence
of society on the Agricultural Environment
Conclusions
References
Annex
Slovakia was the poorer and more rural part of the former Czechoslovakian
Federation (CSFR), which was known as one of the richer countries before
World War II. Based mainly on imports of raw materials and energy from
the Soviet Union the communist regime promoted the industralization of
the Slovak parts of the Federation´s teritory and this lead to an equalized
regional distribution of national economic activities. At the time of the
fall of the communist regime in November 1989, the Czechoslovak Federation
was a relatively poor country (compared to the members of the EU). Still
embedded in the framework of the CSFR, the most important initial reforms
towards a market oriented economy undertaken were: liberalization of prices;
liberalization of trade; privatization; the establishment of economic institutions
and adjustment of legislation.
After the Slovak Republic became a sovereign state on 1 January 1993,
it had to cope with various difficulties from the former federation, such
as: political instability; a lack of a broad census of the path of economic
reforms; and fiscal and external imbalances as a consequence of the withdrawal
of transfers from the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, this dissolution also
brought about some positive aspects. In particular, Slovakia inherited:
relatively low external debts; relatively low inflation; and a relatively
consistent and adjusted macroeconomic policy.
After a rapid decline in the first transformation period, the Slovak
economy shows recovering indicators of economic performance.
The increased pressure on natural resources, water and soil in particular,
the wide changes in agricultural policies and practices, the improved recognition
of environmental problems, the globalization of the economy, and the need
for fair social and socio-economic balances, have made it necessary to
rethink the issues of development. The concept of sustainable development
in Slovakia has therefore been introduced and widely accepted. In the case
of agriculture, this concept has particular implications for the relationships
between agricultural activities, environmental preservation and resource
conservation, and is also grounded in the strategic goals of Slovakian
agrarian policy (Table
1).
Since 1990, the process of transformation in Slovak Agriculture
has been seriously constrained by low levels of capital investment. The
investment rate in the agricultural sector has been at approximately 60
percent of the average investment rate for other sectors of the economy.
The resultant undercapitalization in the sector affects the competitiveness
of Slovak agricultural production, both in foreign and domestic markets.
This has resulted in a worsening of the terms of trade and seems to be
one of the most critical factors in the future development of the sector.
However, it is unrealistic to believe that agriculture will be able
to continue to play this role. The good 1995 macro-economic results for
the Slovak Republic should be seen against dramatically worsening economic
and social conditions, especially in rural areas. If there is a further
decline in agriculture, the problems associated with rural Slovakia will
become a striking issue. The government has therefore stressed the importance
of a balanced development to prevent rural unemployment and massive urban
migration. The strategic role of agriculture in Slovak society is obvious
also from the fact that 43 percent of the population live in rural areas,
where until recently land was the main source of income.
The following passages of Chapter 2 are mainly based on the report
of the European Union "Agricultural Situation and Prospects in the Central
and Eastern European countries: Slovak Republic" which was prepared by
the Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics of Bratislava.
The privatization process of Slovakian enterprises was a very consequential
step towards the restructuring of the whole economy. A sell-off of state
assets has been pursued through two privatization waves. The privatization
process started in 1990 during the CSFR period with "small-scale privatization",
and was completed in 1992 with about 10 000 shops, businesses and enterprises
being auctioned off. As a second phase of the first privatization wave,
"large-scale" privatization was launched in 1992 and was completed by mid
1993. There were about 750 enterprises involved with book value of about
166 billion SKK. In this process the shares of 503 companies amounting
to 80 billion SKK were distributed through a voucher-based "mass privatization".
In September 1994, the second wave of privatization started with the
distribution of vouchers, but was then put on hold until June 1995, when
the government announced a new privatization policy. The voucher privatization
scheme was replaced with a scheme based on direct sales to strategic investors,
including sales by installments to managers and employees (MEBO; the Management
Employee Buy Out Scheme). Within the new privatization policy, a law relating
to state interest in companies came into force in 1995. It lists 29 companies,
which will not be privatized, mainly in infrastructure, telecommunications,
armaments and agriculture. The law secures a majority share for the state
in a further 45 companies of the mentioned sectors. A restitution fund
was established by the National Property Fund (NPF) in 1993 to provide
financial compensation to those whose claims could be met by the return
of property. The privatization of the farm sector had a high priority in
the policy framework of Slovakia.
As result of privatization, collective farms and nearly all state
farms disappeared and cooperative and large private farms emerged, most
organized as corporate farms. As a result of the restructuring following
privatization, cooperatives split up into corporate farms. Individual private
and household plot farming remained a rather marginal activity occupying
just 7 percent of total agricultural land with an average size of 7.7 hectares.
However, despite this small percentage, their contribution to agricultural
output is high. More than 60 percent of potato production took place on
this farm type, and smallholders are the main producers of fruit and vegetables.
However, dominated by the big cooperative and corporate entities, Slovak
farm sizes, which formed as the result of transition, are amongst the largest
in Europe. The re-assignment of property rights has been a difficult task
as the land register had to be updated and re-adapted to the emerging ownership
structure. The primary production sector made much better progress than
the food industry in restructuring and the adaptation to a market economy.
Farms could immediately increase their production if they received profitable
prices from the downstream sector.
Transition in the agrarian sector is to be completed as part of
the general economic reform, including important macro-economic changes.
The most influential factors related to performance and operations in the
agrarian sector are the following three important elements. First, price
liberalization and the removal of the negative turnover tax and subsidy.
This subsidy, under the conditions of the planned economy, was used to
provide cheap food. Consumer food prices were subsidized enabling consumers
to have access to cheap food products. Such a policy created a high level
of food consumption. The removal of the subsidy resulted in a sharp decline
in food consumption. As viewed by farmers, a negative consequence of price
liberalization was a more rapid growth in input
rather than output prices. Second, currency devaluation was accomplished
in two steps. The first devaluation was in former Czechoslovakia, when
the exchange rate of 17.2 Kčs/1USD (January 1990) was changed to 28 Kčs/US$1
(December 1990) and the second in the Slovak Republic to 32 SKK/US$1.
The underdevaluation of the currency supported the export of agricultural
products that were in excess of domestic demand. However, the production
of agriculture in European Union countries made exports very difficult,
if not impossible. And third, creating conditions for competition: economic
reform followed a policy of demonopolization and the creation of a competitive
environment, but this process has been difficult because of the structure
of the planned economic system.
Due to the process of privatization and changes in the structure
of business entities, the total area of agricultural land farmed by cooperatives
and state farms decreased (the number of employees and the value of fixed
assets decreased in a similar manner). Commercial farming enterprises recorded
a growth in all major indicators. Even though all types of farming entities
are burdened by excessive debt, the situation in farming cooperatives is
still critical, mainly because cooperatives assumed various financial obligations
in the process of transformation. The number of bank loans increased, particularly
in the case of commercial farming enterprises, which represent the most
creditworthy clients in the sector (due to their low indebtedness and positive
economic performance). Subsidies decreased on smaller farms and increased
on bigger ones. The 501-1 000 hectares category of farms achieved the best
economic results: their losses declined further and the growth in revenues
exceeded the growth in the amount of expenses.
In order to restore and put in place a system of land ownership,
Slovakia adopted Act No. 330/1991, which regulates the process of land
consolidation, and prescribes procedures for the settlement of ownership
rights. In 1995, based on this act, a series of land consolidation projects
began.
On 14 June 1994, the government decided (Resolution No. 572) that all
questions concerning titles to agricultural and forestland must be resolved
by the end of 1998. According to the law and the government policy, the
process is handled jointly by the Office of Geodesy, Cartography and Land
Registry of SR (OGCLR) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MASR).
These entitled persons received back land, and their ownership was
thereby reinstated. For the 15 754 hectares of land retained by the Land
Authorities, pursuant to § 11 of the Land Act, entitled persons received
22.83 million Crowns in compensation. Similarly, the Land Authorities handle
the settlement of restitution claims which individuals enforce through
various associations (of land and forests owners, etc.).
Some of new owners began farming, some sold their land, but most of
them leased the land to the bigger farmers, at 1.5-2 percent of the land
value.
The stagnation of land market development still remains. The whole
situation may be described as follows:
Transition had a strong impact on agricultural output. The disparity
of prices between agricultural products and inputs depressed farm profits.
Production was compelled to adjust to the slow-down of financial flows
and the poorer availability of investment and operating capital due to
a declining support for agriculture.
The disparity in the performance between input and output prices had
a very negative impact on profitability. Input prices doubled in the first
two years of transition from 1989 to 1990, whereas output prices virtually
remained unchanged. Until 1997, the prices for agricultural products increased
only slowly to 160 percent of the 1989 level. At the same time input prices
had skyrocketed to 350 percent. Slovakian producers were severely affected
by the widening of the cost-revenue scissors (Graph
1).
The decline in overall input value was less marked than the decline
in overall output value. The disparity in the development of input and
output value was mainly due to the rapid increase of input prices and the
high share between fixed costs. The disparity of prices of agricultural
products and inputs widened rapidly in 1991 and 1992 and provoked heavy
losses in the whole agricultural sector. Since 1993, the gap narrowed slightly
again and since 1994 input and output value has increased more or less
in parallel (Graph
2).
In Slovakia, the environment suffers basically from the same problems
caused by agriculture inmost other CEECs. In Slovakia, the most serious
problem is water pollution caused by the unsustained high application of
fertilizers and the inappropriate treatment of animal waste during the
socialist era. In particular, ground water basins and limnic ecosystems,
such as lakes and rivers, are still heavily polluted by an overload of
nutrients. Despite the massive extensification in fertilizer application
since the beginning of transition, this problem is likely to remain a long-term
problem. For this reason, the selection of indicators of resource use and
potential environmental impact is very important and has been based on
issues of non-sustainability rather than on those of general definition.
These effects might be classified into: the use of non renewable resources
(fossil energy, phosphorus), the impact on the farm’s natural basis for
production (the soil), and the impact on the surrounding environment, i.e.
the conditions under (groundwater), over (atmosphere) and around (surface
water environment, wildlife) and the farm respectively.
Negative effects on biodiversity are partly mitigated by the very large
area of Nature Reserves (5 National Parks with 200 000 hectares and 16
protected areas with altogether 700 000 hectares, of which 137 000 hectares
are agricultural land), and the counterbalancing impacts of forests. However,
in the intensively cropped plains of Slovakia, biodiversity is negatively
affected by agriculture.
With a total area of 49 035 square kilometres, Slovakia is a bit
bigger than Denmark. Half of the area of Slovakia, or 2.45 million hectares,
is agricultural land of which arable land makes up 1.45 million hectares.
Forests cover over 40 percent of the country (1.99 million hectares), most
of which is hilly or mountainous. About 963 000 hectares are grassland.
The latter is mainly located in the northern, mountainous parts of the
country. Intensive agriculture, partly including the growing of vegetables
and of other intensive crops, in particular that of wine, is developed
in the Podunajská and Východoslovenská Lowlands and adjacent hills (Map
2). Regions under irrigation, the area of which has been decreasing in
recent years, dropped to 54 000 hectares in 1995. In the early 1990s, some
200 000 hectares of land were under irrigation. There is 0.46 hectares
of agricultural land and 0.27 hectares of arable land per capita. During
transition, land use remained rather unchanged for most of the basic land
use categories. There was only a small shift from arable land to permanent
grassland.
The most important degradation processes in agriculture are water and
wind erosion. In Slovakia, more than 576 thousand hectares of arable land
are affected by water erosion. The damage was caused mostly by the wrong
use of land, especially by improper plant rotation, very large plots, unsuitable
agro-techniques and the improper conversion of grassland to arable land.
The average amount of washed away best parts of soil takes 2.8-3.0 million
tonnes per year. Water erosion in the mountains is accelerated by the conversion
of grassland to arable use.
Roughly 390 000 hectares of arable land are affected by wind erosion
in Slovakia. The damage, like that of water erosion, is caused mostly by
unsuitable infrastructure and land use, improper tillage, and the insufficient
building of windbreaks. Researchers have proved that a loss of a 10 mm
layer of humus horizon results in a 2-4 percent loss in yield. Crop yields
decline on slightly eroded lands by 20 percent, on medium by 40 percent,
and on heavily eroded land up to 70 percent.
Land acidification is, in addition to acid rains, also caused by using
physiologically acid fertilizers. In the most fertile soils of the Podunajská
and Východoslovenská lowland basins, alkalization is also apparent. This
is caused by improper irrigation in localities with an intensive evaporation
regime. Irrigation is also limited with high levels of mineralized underground
waters. The area of saline land in Slovakia is 70 000 hectares.
In Slovakia more than 700 000 hectares of agricultural land suffers
from compaction which is caused by improper agrotechnics (crop rotation,
tillage), and especially by the incorrect use of agricultural technology.
Biological soil degradation is mostly occasioned by high chemical dosages
and soil contamination by other sectors (industry). Nevertheless, certain
adverse influences on soil fertility (erosion, contamination of soil and
ground water, etc.) continue, for which reason it is necessary to intensify
the protection of land through support from the State Fund for the Protection
and Cultivation of Agricultural Land (SFPCAL). Since 1995, SFPCAL has released
hundred of millions SKKs in support of fertilization measures. However,
this still falls short of being sufficient to ensure noticeable progress
(as no funds were released for this purpose previously).
The rapid diminution of the agricultural land area engendered the
replacement of arable land by the so-called supplementary reclamation.
From 1945, the agricultural land area shrunk by 300 000 hectares, of which
88 percent was arable land. The supplementary reclamation was often also
done on unsuitable terrain where the high costs were not justified by economic
return, and the ecological and environmental damage was tremendous. The
introduction of large-scale techniques in plant production favoured the
technical and economic aspects, which was followed by plot interface. From
the view of area dimensions, in Podunajská lowlands had stem 100–200
hectares plots. The introduction of large-scale production in animal production
was reflected in the construction of large stables; for cows per 1 000–2
000 pieces, for pigs per 10 000 or more pieces. This was accompanied with
the big problems of covering these huge capacities with feed, but much
bigger to manage the manure itself, which caused land degradation.
The land is a production source of national wealth. In the sense
of AGENDA 21 (Rio de Janeiro 1992) it should be used sustainably. The new
economic and social conditions from 1990 to the present, do not provide
any conditions for the principles of the sustainable exploitation of the
agricultural landscape, including use of land. Shortcomings are mostly
reflected in following land use areas:
The loss of nitrogen, (N) from livestock farms may contribute to
the increase in the nitrate content in ground water used for drinking water
and in the eutrophication of lake waters, thus reducing the biodiversity
and the amount of consumable fish. Phosphorus, (P) is not presently leacheding
in significant amounts in Slovakia, but can be lost via surface erosion
to streams and lakes where it causes eutrophication. The sustainable use
of water resources in agriculture is one facet of sustainable agriculture.
The main water use is for agricultural production, and secondary uses are
those for human and farm activities. Water use for crops comes from both
rainfall and irrigation, but human intervention is mainly oriented to irrigation.
Water quality is a growing problem. Surface waters become more polluted:
low dissolved oxygen, heavy metals and increased faecal coli-forms. This
is mainly caused by affluents from industry and urban settlements. However,
agriculture is also a cause of pollution, particularly groundwater pollution.
The hydrosphere is an indispensable part of agroecosystems. From the
ecological viewpoint, a surplus or shortage aggravates the situation in
biocenozis and plant production. The long-term drainage volume of 460 000
hectares of agricultural land in Slovakia cannot be rated as an improvement
of ecological production conditions. The drainage of bogs or meadows in
lowlands and hills, the drainage of the Výchoslovenská Lowland, and total
arable lands and meadows with local springs in hilly regions reduced production
and potential soil functions and bio-diversity.
Water sources in Slovakia are unevenly distributed. The average long-term
annual capacity of water sources of the country represents an approximate
drainage volume of 12.9 billion m3. The volume of border streams
flowing through Slovak Republic territory can be added to this amount,
but their utilization is limited by international agreements. The applicable
capacity of surface water sources remaining after deduction of the essential
(from ecological viewpoints) flow volumes in the watercourses (excluding
the Danube, Morava and Tisa) is 90.4 m3 s-1.
Scenarios for the development of long-term average drainage volumes
from selected regions of Slovakia for the years 2010, 2030 and 2075 have
shown that a decreasing trend in water volume is far more probable than
the continuity of the status corresponding to that several decades ago,
and that any improvement on that past status is even less probable. The
decisive factor seems to be the expected growth of temperature in climatic
scenarios. According to these, the southern regions of Slovakia, particularly
their lowland areas, would be more influenced by drainage and possibly
even become extremely arid zones. A moderate reduction or insignificant
change of water volume could be expected in the northern Slovak Republic
regions, with their lower locations being more vulnerable. In general,
vulnerability in the north of Slovakia would be most apparent in the form
of minor changes in the volume of precipitation. With the growth of average
temperatures being the key factor.
As a result of certain measurements, ground water quality in 1996
was shown to be anthroponically affected in all observed regions, except
for regions with low industrial agglomeration density and regions unsuitable
for agricultural exploitation. Water eutrophization is frequently caused
by qualitative changes of surface river flows and water reservoirs contaminated
with household and industrial outflow, but especially by fertilizers removed
by rain or erosion. The most important are nitrates and phosphates, and
to a lesser degree potassium. This process, which is a reflection of agricultural
or communal pollution, is very frequent in irrigation and drainage canals,
fishponds and also in bigger reservoirs. Water with a higher chlorophyll
content (above 25 mg.m-3) is defined
as strongly eutrophycated, and in 1996 this concentration was excessive
in the water reservoirs reservoirs Kráľová nad Váhom, Zemplínska Šírava,
Toky, ŠJ Jakubov, and ŠJ Šaštín Stráže. Water contamination with
nitrates involves many agro-climatic and hydrologic factors and
has a regional character with cyclical seasonal alternations. The fountain
of anorganic nitrate is outflow from agriculturally used and with mineral
nitrate manured soils, atmospheric precipitation and some industrial outflow
waters. The source of organic nitrate is often waste wash, dung wash waters,
silo outflow and decomposed organic waste. In Slovakia, shallow horizons
in lowland regions are mostly endangered. High nitrate concentrations above
50 mg/litrewere found in water sources in
the Považie and Ponitrie regions, and also in the Východoslovenská Lowland.
In the 1980s, the nitrate content in water sources increased yearly in
these regions by more than 4 mg/1iter.
The nitrate presence in potable water sources engender many medical
and technical problems. A relatively high nitrate ration in fertilizer
batchings in the past was examined in connection to participation in water
sources pollution. More than 83 percent of potable water has its origin
in underground waters, which are predominantly located in regions with
intensive agricultural production. Research between 1980 and 1985 showed
that in water pollution caused by agricultural production, square pollution
was more prevalent than dot pollution. The following three factors are
dominant in square pollution:
Agriculture in the Slovak Republic contributes about 40 percent
to the pollution of watersources (Gábriš at all, 1998). At the moment,
about 65 000 sources of area and spot water pollution (mostly plant production)
are registered.
The economic function of water (function of sustainability) lies in
the use of it in industrial and agricultural production (specially in food
processing). In the Slovak Republic 1994, 25 372 l.s-1 of water
was used (of this 19 301 l.s-1 in industry). Of the estimated
underground sources in Slovakia, roughly half is used. In 1995, 382 849
th.m3.r-1 was used for irrigation. Recently, the use of irrigation
is decreasing, mostly due to water quality, which is becoming a serious
problem. The amount of water of first class quality (suitable for irrigation)
represents 31.6 percent; of second class (conditionally suitable for irrigation)
43,1 percent, and of third class (water unsuitable) 25,3 percent. The purest
irrigation water is located in the Danube River Basin. The water used in
animal production is obtained mostly from private wells which cover 80
percent of consumption. In recent years, not only around the world but
also in Slovakia, the situation of the water balance in rural regions is
worsening.
The reasons for the worsening water balance are the following:
The emissions of greenhouse gases in Slovakia reached their highest
level in the late 1980s. In the period 1990-1994, this level dropped by
25 percent and from 1994 we are registering a slight increase. The use
of fossil energy is of interest because it is a non-renewable resource
and because combustion contributes to global warming. Air pollution is
caused by a high energetic input in the form of fossil fuels, releasing
the greenhouse gas carbon oxide (CO2) and also emissions of
methane and ammonia. Greenhouse gases released by agricultural activities
include methane, carbon oxide and nitric oxide. A very important greenhouse
gas is methane (CH4), which is generated by the anaerobic decomposition
of organic substances. In the environment, it is naturally released in
bogs. In agriculture, it is also created in cow and sheep digestive tracts
and also in all operation outlets with an imperfect combustion of organic
substances. One methane molecule from animal production causes 40 times
more danger in its greenhouse effect than carbon oxide. The fundamental
portion of CH4 comes from animal excrements. The multitude of
methane emissions from animal production depends on: the intensity of animal
production; the way of animal placed; manure holding; and the method of
manure application.
The step up in milk production and the transition to literrless technology
after 1990, decreased the production of greenhouse gases (by number reduction,
and more intensive energy exploitation). A gas reduction of 20-90 percent
is caused by manure management (technology, time, soil type and plant).
Qualified judgement showed that in 1988 animal production produced more
than 180 Gg CH4.
In 1997, the Slovak agricultural contribution to all greenhouse gases
emissions was around 7 percent. Most methane is produced in agriculture:
46 percent. The other pollution gas is N2O, which is generated
by a mineral nitrate surplus in the soil as a result of a combination of
intensive field manuring by industrial manure and a poor air regime in
the soil. The release of nitrate gases from the soil into the air is a
part of the natural mechanisms of N in nature. It is generated as a result
of biological processes in the soil (de-nitrification, nitrification).
Every year, on average 4-7 Gg A–N2O is released in Slovakia,
which is only 0.09-0.016 percent of the whole world’s production of A–N2O
from agricultural land. The amount of deposited N in Slovak Republic in
1995 was 2 500 tonnes.
The activities of intensive agricultural production in the former
economic regime have had more negative impacts on agriculture landscape.
The semi-natural grass-covered grounds which for many hundreds of years
were environmentally managed (such as mowed meadows and pastures) represent
the highest diversity of species and plant societies in agricultural land
in Slovakia.
In the last few decades, the meadow ecosystems in Slovakia have been
considerably changed. Natural meadows in the alpine zone are significantly
endangered by global climate warming. Copses in higher mountain ranges
are also endangered. The abandoning of traditional farming methods,
and the pasturing of enormous sheep and cattle herds, which were considerably
reduced in size after 1990, resulted in the degradation and reduction in
species diversity. In this way, mountain ranges in regions of the Lower
Tatras, Poľana and Eastern Karpaty, and others (Uhliarová, Krištín,
at all. 1998) were changed. In the last 40 years, many semi-natural meadows
and pastures were transformed into intensive grass fields and the original
species composition was substantially changed. In the sub-mountainous and
mountainous regions of Slovakia, there are an increasing number of abandoned
meadows. The meadows are often extremely steep and not reachable by mechanization,
and thus for the owners they are economically worthless. The tilling of
meadows also contributed to the loss of natural copses. The semi-natural
meadow ecosystems, particularly mezofilic meadows and meadows on the flood
plains of lowland rivers, should be listed among the most endangered plant
societies in Slovakia.
It is extremely important to save our gene fund because there are many
precious, endangered, endemic and relict plant and animal species. They
are very important also from the standpoint of anti-erosion land protection.
In the last few decades, large areas of xerotherm vegetation have been
ruined. The main factors causing this situation were tilling, afforestation
with non-native trees (locust tree, pine), cutting and constructing recreational
houses.
In the most intensive lowland areas, where large-scale technology was
most disseminated (enterprises with 3–5 000 hectares of agricultural
land), the former varied landscape changed into a uniform landscape type;
the "agricultural type" or "cultural steppe". Large-scale intensive agricultural
production left enormous environmental damage in the agricultural landscape.
It was manifested by joining plots and the removal of functional fresh
vegetation, without consideration in landscape configuration and the principal
ecological linkages. Plot enlargement was done without respect to the criteria
of land and ecological anti-erosion protection. This situation in principle
still exists.
Taking into account agriculture-related problems, the following improvements
seem to be desirable in order to make farming systems more sustainable:
The results of an analysis on agriculture in Slovakia show that
there are new threats to biodiversity. These are: production intensification,
destruction of biothopes, and changes in the environmental conditions in
agricultural landscape. All the above mentioned categories lead to a reduction
in natural and semi-natural areas, to a retreat of the key, precious and
endangered species, and also to genofund reductions in cultural plant species
and varieties and domesticated animal breeds.
The protection of ecological stability and biodiversity in the agricultural
landscape is strongly dependent on schemes of natural resource exploitation
and also on agricultural landscape management. Intensively managed ecosystems
of type "ager" on the arable land in the Slovak Republic are focused on
large-scale crop production, and they occupy the largest portion of agricultural
land in lowland regions. They are characterized by minimal biodiversity.
In comparison with the lowlands, the biodiversity of mountainous and sub-mountainous
regions in the Slovak Republic is much higher. Participating there are
many secondary ecosystems, such as meadows, rationally exploited pastures,
orchards, vineyards and others which arose as a result of human activity
in original climax forest associations. To sustain their ecological stability,
additional efforts are needed (for example mowing) to prevent secondary
succession. Also meadows, pastures and orchards in sub-mountainous and
mountainous regions significantly participate in global national biodiversity.
From the viewpoint of plant and animal biodiversity, probably the richest
was the traditionally managed agricultural landscape, which endured in
Slovakia until the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. The
large number of species and areas of diverse plant associations and their
associated animal groups secured:
Striving to assess natural resources and functions from the point
of view of the economy, brings us to the concept of environmental capital.
It consists of all natural resources, functions and processes supporting
life while, at the same time, enabling human society to produce food, clothes,
and shelter, as well as other products for human consumption. Evidently,
only a society which can direct its economics without continuously exploiting
this environmental capital can survive into the future. This society can
be called "sustainable".
In Slovakia, the demand for raw material sources of the best quality
has resulted in their intensive exploitation in the past, with no regard
to the environmental situation of regions. Energy consumption in the metallurgical
and chemical industries and in the production of cement and construction
materials was very high per capita in Slovakia during the previous regime,
and mostly used lower quality coal with a high production of SO2
(i.e. 4 times more than in Austria). The generated acid rain destroyed
the mineral and organic components of the soil. The movement of toxic elements
is rapid and rises in concentration in soil solution (Mn, Al, Fe, Ca).
In this way acid rain facilitates the absorption of these elements into
food chains; it increases soil erosion, and the quality of agricultural
and forest soils frequently falls.
Metalization causes the worst contamination of soils. It is very difficult
to remove, and itsconsequences will be lasting, even after its removal
from the air. In Slovakia, measurable quantities of mercury, cadmium, chromium,
and lead are found in the soil. The influence of heavy metals on soil fertility
and the bio-energetic quality of soils and phytocenosis depends on their
specific properties and soil type, and also on the quantity of heavy metals.
The highest accumulation is observed in hard soils. In the sand, soils'
heavy metals have penetrated into ground layers and down to the ground
water. Research results have proved the relationship between the quality
of absorbent heavy metals and soil acidity. In the Institute of Soil Fertility
in Bratislava and in the University of Agriculture in Nitra, this problem
has been studied very intensively.
The necessity of finding asolution to environmental problems requires
social recognition. The aim is to achieve cooperation between various interest
and power groups. There are four major groups: governmental institutions,
non-governmental organizations, the business sector and local administration.
From this point of view, the position of traditional nature conservation
starts to be gradually replaced by cooperative efforts of the parties concerned
to safeguard it and to make natural resources sustainable.
An important step forward in the protection of natural resources
was the establishment of the Slovak Commission for Environment (SKZP) by
the Act of SNR No. 96/1990 Digest. The SKZP has become the central authority
of state administration for environmental protection and nature conservation,
the protection of the quality and quantity of waters and their rational
use, the protection of air, territorial planning and housing regulations,
the treatment of the solid wastes, the providing of a unified information
system on the environment and monitoring in the territory of the Slovak
Republic. By the Act of SNR No. 453/1992, the SKZP was transformed into
the Ministry for Environment which also became the central authority of
the state for geological research and survey. In 1992, the Ministry of
Forestry and Water Management fused with the Ministry of Agriculture and
Alimentation, whereby a new Ministry of Soil Management was established.
Following the central authorities of state administration, there has
also emerged a new system of territorial authorities. An important contribution
was adopted by the Act of SNR No. 595/1990 on the State Administration
of the Environment, establishing a specific system of territorial authorities
of an interdisciplinary character, enabling administration in the line
with the requirements of the respective central authority, that is the
Ministry of Environment. State administration concerned with the conservation
and protection of the environment in the territory was exercised by the
district bureaus for the environment, municipal bureaus for the environment,
Slovak inspection of environment and the municipalities. Expert organizations,
the founder of which is the Ministry of Environment, are: the Administration
of national parks of the Slovak Republic, the Administration of Slovak
Caves, the Slovak Agency for the Environment including also the administration
of Protected Landscape Areas, the Slovak Hydrometeorogical Institute, and
the Geological Service for the Slovak Republic.
Agriculture is narrowly linked with economic, social, cultural,
and rural development. Lately, many of the social and economic securities
of rural inhabitants diminished, due to the influence of social and economical
transition. They were represented by the job opportunities security in
state supported agricultural enterprises and in cheap communication to
industrial enterprises.
The Ministry of Agriculture in connection with the Governmental Programme
Declaration supports the existing and up to now coordinated initiatives
of rural development by establishing the Rural Development Agency, and
subsidising those farmers who farm under less favourable natural and climatic
conditions (a system of subsidies, including sheep premiums; compensation
for a permanent change of crops; and support of supplementary activities).
One of the goals of the Agricultural Policy is to preserve farming
in less competitive areas in order to preserve the landscape by preserving
the former settlements and creating new jobs for them. Clearly, small private
farmers in these areas depend on government support, particularly in the
form of subsidies. This solution conforms with the type of support provided
to farmers in the EU.
Because the number of beehives is falling every year, and we will thus
have to face a reduction in fruit and vegetables yields by insufficient
pollination, a support is paid to beekeepers. The number of beehives in
1995 was 4.06 percent lower than in 1994, and in 1996 lower by 13.7 percent
than in 1995.This support will run counter to efforts to support fruit
and vegetables growing and is at variance with the National Health Support
Programme.
Apart from the regionalization of the country, pursuant of EU criteria,
it is necessary to prepare specific development projects for individual,
newly defined regions, including appropriate legislative measures for their
implementation. Due to heavy losses in viticulture, growers uproot vineyards
rather than investing in their (extremely costly) restoration and maintenance.
The growing and production of varieties of vine strains has been substantially
reduced, which causes changes in traditional regional landscape. Excise
tax payable on the entire wine output represents SKK 300 million annually.
The ministry suggested that 50 percent of the money paid in excise taxes
on wine be transferred from the state budget to the budget of the MA SR
who would redistribute it to support the vintner’s investments in vineyards
and help them overcome the recession that viticulture has been in for several
years.
According to the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, of natural
resources in the ownership of the state, only mineral resources, groundwaters,
natural health resources and water flows remained.
In the sector of agriculture, the role of state administration is fulfilled
by the Centres of Regional Land and the Information Service, as the organizational
entities of the Ministry of Soil Management. The changes in the ownership
of natural resources were brought about by adoption of Act No. 229/1991
on the Regulation of Ownership Relations to Land and Other Agricultural
Property. The Act was adopted in order to alleviate some property injustices
from the past. The tasks of the state concerned with the restoration of
property rights and the regulation of land ownership are performed by the
land bureaus.
On 24 July 1996, two important acts were brought into force: the Act
of NR SR (National Council of the Slovak Republic) No. 221/1996 on the
Territorial and Administrative Division of the Slovak Republic and the
Act of NR SR No. 222/1996 on the Organization of Local State Administration
and the change and amendment of certain acts. In this way, the reform of
state administration was enforced. The reform of municipalities administration
is prepared as of an act on higher territorial entities which will determine
their position, relation to state administration, and their bodies. In
terms of the approved Act No. 221/1996 the Slovak Republic has been divided
into 8 region and 79 districts.
The specific position of the specialized state administration for environment
/ the bureaus for the environment and forestry commissions - was abolished
and these have been included into the district and regional authorities
as separate departments. However, we believe, that the present state of
the environment, its protection and, after many years of economic growth
preferences without the protection of the environment, demands supra–departmental,
independent decision-making, separate from other activities in the area.
Input prices for materials and energy, which in the former regime
were kept at low levels by means of state subsidies, have now undergone
transformation to market prices. The disparity between prices of agricultural
products and production inputs to agriculture depressed profits. Production
was compelled to adjustment by the slow-down of financial flows and the
poorer availability of investment and operating capital. A lowered demand
also called for a change in the output structure, as well as a more streamlined
utilization of resources, which became more difficult to get for agricultural
producers.
The disparity in input and output prices had a very negative impact
on agriculture in general. To avoid an unwise future use of inputs with
the aim of intensifying production, the following laws and regulation were
accepted:
The protection and cultivation of agricultural land is provided
through legislative, agro-technical and organizational measures, namely
Act 307/1992 (The Agricultural Land Protection Act). Further to this act,
the MA SR issued Resolution No. 531/1994-540 (dated January 1995), which
prescribes acceptable levels of deleterious substances in soil and stipulates
the institutions entitled to measure the levels of these substances. Later,
the government issued Resolution No. 152/1996, regulating the rate of compensation
for the withdrawal from cultivation of agricultural land, which took effect
on 1st June 1996. These legislative measures have curbed the
shrinkage in the total amount of agricultural land in recent years.
The environmental policies of the state are based on the Constitution
of the Slovak Republic of 1 September 1992, containing a separate part
on the rights and duties of all subjects to the environment. For nature
conservation, paragraph 6 of Chapter II is the most important. In 1993,
the government and the parliament approved an important document, the "Strategy,
Principles and Priorities of the State Environmental Policies of the Slovak
Republic" which briefly characterizes the present state of the environment
in Slovakia and proposes 70 short-term aims (to 1996), 59 aims for the
period 2000-2010 and 33 general and partial long-term (2010-2030). This
document defines five fundamental priorities of state environmental policies.
In the Slovak Republic, more than 700 regulations of different legal
force are concerned with the field of the environment, of which more than
600 are related to the protection of specific areas and objects. One hundred
further regulations have a wider scope, e.g. mining law, forest law, etc.
Although before November 1989 the environmental law already existed, of
environmental law legislation since that time developed in an extraordinary
way. In 1994, in connection with and tied to the UNCED and AGENDA 21, the
Act of NR SR No. 287/94 Digest on Nature and landscape protection was approved,
as a basis for farming and exploitation of agricultural land in protected
areas.
Other important acts adopted in Slovakia since 1989 are:
The corner stone of legal regulations of nature and landscape conservation
is the Act of NR SR No. 287/1994 on Nature and Landscape Conservation.
The Act introduces the system of nature and landscape conservation, of
their components and their elements. It establishes the principles for
the care of nature and the landscape and their relationship to the protection
of specific natural components, the basic duties of juridical and physical
persons, as well as the components, duties and policies of state nature
conservation authorities. It decreases the number of categories of protected
areas in accordance with international categorization (national park, protected
landscape areas, nature reserves, national nature reserve, nature monuments,
national nature monuments). The classic economic tools, such as prohibitions,
orders, dues and fines are applied e.g. in the acts on the protection of
air, on waste, on nature, and landscape conservation, on offenses, and
in the act on local dues.
The "State Fund for the Protection and Enhancement of Agricultural
Land" (SFPEAL)1 provides support in line with
those priorities established in 1996, which were later rectified to reflect
the needs of primary agricultural producers. SFPEAL administers some 1
billion crowns and provides funds to support:
Financial resources from the state budget for environmental conservation
and enhancement were divided among the allocations to the individual departments.
Since January 1997, separate allocations of the state budget provide for
the budgets of regional authorities, including the resources for environmental
conservation and enhancement. The municipalities themselves have no independence
in creating their own resources for coping with environmental problems
(especially for ecological infrastructure), for this reason a very important
role belongs to the civil society organizations.
After the political change in the country, many green non-governmental
organization appeared. It is difficult to determine precisely the number
of these organizations because this number is under constant change. Some
of most important are enumerated:
In Slovakia, there is a multitude of other organizations mostly
acting at the local level. As the existing tax-system does not sufficiently
support sponsorship, most of the Slovak foundations finance almost exclusively
only their own activities. The conditions of their functioning are now
strictly limited by the new Act on Foundations. Nature and environment
conservation-oriented NGOs are the organizations least endowed by the state.
They may send their grant proposals to e.g. the Fund for the Environment
and the Fund for Culture Pro Slovakia, as well as to certain Ministries
(the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for environment, the Ministry
for Culture). Although environmental organizations, due to a lack of financial
resources and supportive economic tools, struggle with inadequate material,
technical, spatial and economic conditions, they represent a significant
proportion of civil society which deserves much higher support than they
receive today. They are:
Agricultural research should prepare an experience/knowledge base
for the consistent transformation (restructuring) of agricultural production
in respect to specific land and ecological conditions, implementation (by
the EU for example) of measures on applying special farming systems in
sensitive regions (including financial reimbursement for loses), and also
steps for the evaluation of the effects of agricultural production. Research
is also obliged to prepare other recommendations for lowering inputs and
increasing the effectiveness of agricultural production.
The reorientation of agricultural policies will create the need for
re-instrumentation. Traditional agricultural policies, heavily biased towards
price support, are going to be phased out. Direct payments will have to
become better targeted, more cost-efficient and de-coupled from farm production
or factors of production. If these conditions are fulfilled, they could
provide an important tool to respond to the multifunctional role of agriculture,
in particular in relation to the environment and sustainable agricultural
and rural development. Finally, there is also the need for better assessment
of policy developments that have taken place in CEEC´s those under way,
and policy alternatives in the future. The growing interdependencies of
developments in the agri-food sector means that more emphasis will have
to be placed on the optimal policy mix. This includes the need to analyse
impacts on farm incomes, structural adjustment, environmental quality,
rural development, trade and the functioning of the agricultural world
markets.
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Policy in Slovakia, unpublished manuscript.
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point of view.
Kováč, K. 1996. Steering towards
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H. 1998. Nature Conservation in the Kysuce Region and Collaboration
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