There are considerable differences between the EU-15 countries and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in the application rate of phosphorus (P) fertilizer and manure as well as in the climate and erosion patterns, but the eutrophication of surface waters is a common problem. The availability of information on the contribution of the CEE countries to European surveys on eutrophication is not adequate, because the amount of data available from these countries is small. There is thus a need to compile more comprehensive data sets for better assessment. Recent changes in agricultural practices, and their impact on the trophic status of surface waters in CEE countries, have been evaluated using a few selected pressure and state indicators (phosphorus balance, phosphorus status and erosion of agricultural land, P loss risk index, chlorophyll a, total and orthophosphate content of water) by compiling and analysing data from the literature. In the CEE countries, small annual P balances ()7 to +6 kg P ha )1 ) and declining levels of soil available P (proportion of soils adequately supplied with P dropped to between 10 and 50% of total area) may lead to low yields and economic difficulties. Only 11% of the variation in total phosphorus (TP) in rivers studied could be attributed to the calculated P loss risk index, and thus to the impact of differences in the agricultural diffuse source P load. The generation of more consistent data sets should be pursued for the whole of Europe in order to derive more powerful indicators. A refined P index could be one of the best indicators of eutrophication. Recent changes in the trophic level of surface waters could be attributed to a large extent to the change in point source P loads, i.e. to the diminishing amount of P load from municipal and industrial wastewater. The short-term improvement of water quality in the CEE countries will require further improvements in wastewater treatment, but long-term improvement will only be achieved by reducing diffuse P losses from agriculture, possibly involving changes in the land use pattern and in farming practices.
Following the 25-year intensive fertilisation practice in the country, two-thirds of Hungarian soils became well or very well supplied with phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). As a consequence of both political and ecological changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fertiliser subsidies were withdrawn, and nitrogen (N) use has dropped to one-fifth, one-third, P and K use to one twenty-fifth, one-twentieth of the amounts used in the early-mid 1980s. An enormous demand has risen for a new, cost saving, and environmentally friendly fertiliser recommendation system. The new system based on the results of the published long-term field trial data in the period of 1960-1995 faces the new challenges.
In the first section of the article, factors affecting the magnitude of mineral and organic nitrogen-phosphorus (NP) use, such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and population density, are discussed. Nutrient balances, especially those of N and P, are important environmental indicators. In recognition of their importance, the countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group have an obligation to submit yearly calculations on soil surface N and P balances. The NP balance studies should always be combined with investigations on the distribution of soil NP status of the investigated area. The negative NP balances and worsening NP status in central-and eastern European (CEE) countries, including those that have recently joined the European Union (NEU12), are in sharp contrast to past practices in the EU15 countries, where strong positive NP balances and oversupply of NP may lead to environmental and ecological threats. There is evidence that the level of oversupply in many of these countries is on the decline. In the CEE countries, on the other hand, worsening levels of NP undersupply may result in increasingly low yields and in economic and agronomic problems. Cooperation within the European Union should help to solve both the environmental threat facing the western part of the community and the agronomic and economic problems in the central and eastern parts. Fertilizer 999 recommendation systems should function on the principle of providing sustainable and economically sound NP nutrition for crops without threatening the environment with the NP oversupply. In a perfectly correct and justifiable manner, the European Union made investments in environment protection, a strict condition for the accession of the central European countries to the EU. One essential obligation was the satisfactory disposal of sewage, as a waterprotection measure. The EU should be as consistently strict in curbing the massive diffuse NP pollution caused by agriculture. Improvement of the EU Nitrate Directive and elaboration of the new EU Phosphate Directive should be based on environmental risk assessment. The principles of environmentally friendly crop nutrition should appear in the improved EU Nitrate Directive and in the new Phosphate Directive. The EU countries with higher per capita income and population density should be given special attention because of their environmentally friendly crop nutrition practice.
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