Current danish policies to abate nutrient emissions from agriculture

The history and rationale of environmental regulation with respect to nutrient emissions from Danish agriculture is briefly outlined, while the current regulation is detailed through reference to and statement of actual paragraphs in statutory orders. The present regulations mainly concern nitrogen losses in the form of farm waste discharges, ammonia volatilization from animal manure and nitrate leaching from agricultural land. Being an important nutrient, phosphorus is only considered implicitly in the regulations. The main elements of the regulations include provisions for storage capacity of animal manure, livestock density on a farm basis, and mandatory submission of fertilizer and crop rotation plans to the authorities. The fertilizer plans and the resulting agricultural practices with respect to the use of both commercial fertilizers and animal manures must comply with normative fertilizer values, stated as a function of the yield expectation of agricultural crops, and minimum utilization efficiencies of animal manure. It is thus a violation of Danish laws and regulations to apply more fertilizer than indicated by the normative values in the statutory orders (and violation of the provisions may be punished by fines). The current regulations apply advisory and regulatory instruments. Financial instruments are not used. It is therefore important that where aspects of the common agricultural policy have a potential to reduce nutrient emissions, this potential is used to the full.