Maira Dzelzkaleja is a Vice-Chairman of Latvia’s Farmers’ Parliament, Zemnieku Saeima. It is the strongest non-governmental organization of commercial farmers in Latvia. Dzelzkaleja joined Zemnieku Saeima in 2000 and has since been working there to represent the interest of Latvian farmers.
She has a strong interest in farming herself, having been closely involved in developing her family’s farm from 14ha in 1990’s up to the 500ha it is today. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy and Master Degree in Economics from the University of Agriculture, Latvia.
What do you see as the biggest threats to the Baltic Sea?
I think the main threat to the Baltic Sea are people themselves. Only when each individual understands that they themself are responsible and should act accordingly, that’s when we will have a cleaner Baltic Sea. We must think about what kind of detergents we use, how we dispose of empty packaging, how can we save energy - and how much food we throw out!
Farmers must also make an effort to secure a future for the Baltic Sea. EU’s agriculture policy is moving to a more balanced and sustainable direction and that will motivate also the farmers to invest in new and more environmentally-friendly technologies and work practises. And I personally hope that in the future we will have a more balanced agriculture, meaning that the agricultural sector will be on an equal footing in all the countries around the Baltic Sea.
The situation today is so that we have a high concentration of animal husbandry in several countries but low levels of utilised agricultural land, combined with an unhealthy dependence on commercial fertilizers in some regions. I would like to see this remedied and becoming more balanced. I believe that would benefit both the Baltic sea and the people living around it.
What do you see as biggest challenges when moving towards sustainable agriculture?
I think it is knowledge and availability of investment and financial resources for new technologies.
In Baltic Compass we talk about manure processing technologies, manure spreading technologies and trying new things; but in the Baltic states, in Latvia but also in Estonia and Lithuania, we still sometimes lack basic requirements like manure storages. We are aware that storages should be done, but not every farmer has the resources to build proper manure storage.
The structure of the farms varies a lot; small farms with owners nearing retirement age fear they will soon go out of business and thus don’t have much interest to make new investments, in manure storage or in new technologies in general. Therefore one of our challenges is to find those who will stay in the sector.
Restructuring of the agricultural sector is still on-going and farmers need information about which technologies to use in the farm. In our countryside we can see that mistakes have been made and these mistakes are costly for the individual farmers. For example in the case of manure storage, farms are in such a dynamic process that sometimes miscalculations lead to farmers building storages which don’t match the farm’s needs. It’s not always possible to adapt new and good things when farms are under expansion.
What do you see as the most promising policies, methods or technologies in the agri-environmental context?
EU’s agriculture policy is helping investment through its rural development plan by allowing the countries to allocate money for investment to new and sometimes costly technologies. And if farmers get back some proportion of their investments, then of course it’s enabling them to do these agri-environmental investments.
In Latvia’s case we have already had support for investments and it’s helped our farmers. The resources allocated for investment were, however, not enough; the interest from the farmers was greater than what was available. We are now waiting for the new financing period, which is due to start in 2014, and we’re hoping that support for investments will be available.
After these seven years [the next financing period, 2014-2020], we hope that our farms have been developed and our farmers would be able to think about different agri-environmental measures and to do activities that are not purely income-generating but benefit the society in general. But in this part of the Baltic Sea we must still develop our economies – it’s the same for all Baltic countries, Russia in Kaliningrad and probably Poland also; restructuring is still on-going and big investments are still needed.
How is Zemnieku Saeima protecting the Baltic Sea?
Our organization– which is now 11 years old – has from the very beginning had a membership consisting of the more progressive farmers. They are the farmers who have the newest technology and I hope they are the ones with a more favourable attitude towards the environment.
We as an organization have always participated in different agri-environmental projects. We’ve had different projects about environmental legislation for farmers; we’ve prepared different information material about environmental legislation in the EU and in our country. We’ve had demonstration projects and new technology transfers projects. We are trying to educate our farmers and to ensure that they have all the tools needed to be more effective and not to pollute the environment.
How are you contributing to the Baltic Compass project?
We are the only farmers’ organization involved in the project so we feel our role in the project is to put our ideas on the line. Because we represent the farmers, it is really important for us to see real, concrete outcomes and results for the farmers.
She has a strong interest in farming herself, having been closely involved in developing her family’s farm from 14ha in 1990’s up to the 500ha it is today. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy and Master Degree in Economics from the University of Agriculture, Latvia.
What do you see as the biggest threats to the Baltic Sea?
I think the main threat to the Baltic Sea are people themselves. Only when each individual understands that they themself are responsible and should act accordingly, that’s when we will have a cleaner Baltic Sea. We must think about what kind of detergents we use, how we dispose of empty packaging, how can we save energy - and how much food we throw out!
Farmers must also make an effort to secure a future for the Baltic Sea. EU’s agriculture policy is moving to a more balanced and sustainable direction and that will motivate also the farmers to invest in new and more environmentally-friendly technologies and work practises. And I personally hope that in the future we will have a more balanced agriculture, meaning that the agricultural sector will be on an equal footing in all the countries around the Baltic Sea.
The situation today is so that we have a high concentration of animal husbandry in several countries but low levels of utilised agricultural land, combined with an unhealthy dependence on commercial fertilizers in some regions. I would like to see this remedied and becoming more balanced. I believe that would benefit both the Baltic sea and the people living around it.
What do you see as biggest challenges when moving towards sustainable agriculture?
I think it is knowledge and availability of investment and financial resources for new technologies.
In Baltic Compass we talk about manure processing technologies, manure spreading technologies and trying new things; but in the Baltic states, in Latvia but also in Estonia and Lithuania, we still sometimes lack basic requirements like manure storages. We are aware that storages should be done, but not every farmer has the resources to build proper manure storage.
The structure of the farms varies a lot; small farms with owners nearing retirement age fear they will soon go out of business and thus don’t have much interest to make new investments, in manure storage or in new technologies in general. Therefore one of our challenges is to find those who will stay in the sector.
Restructuring of the agricultural sector is still on-going and farmers need information about which technologies to use in the farm. In our countryside we can see that mistakes have been made and these mistakes are costly for the individual farmers. For example in the case of manure storage, farms are in such a dynamic process that sometimes miscalculations lead to farmers building storages which don’t match the farm’s needs. It’s not always possible to adapt new and good things when farms are under expansion.
What do you see as the most promising policies, methods or technologies in the agri-environmental context?
EU’s agriculture policy is helping investment through its rural development plan by allowing the countries to allocate money for investment to new and sometimes costly technologies. And if farmers get back some proportion of their investments, then of course it’s enabling them to do these agri-environmental investments.
In Latvia’s case we have already had support for investments and it’s helped our farmers. The resources allocated for investment were, however, not enough; the interest from the farmers was greater than what was available. We are now waiting for the new financing period, which is due to start in 2014, and we’re hoping that support for investments will be available.
After these seven years [the next financing period, 2014-2020], we hope that our farms have been developed and our farmers would be able to think about different agri-environmental measures and to do activities that are not purely income-generating but benefit the society in general. But in this part of the Baltic Sea we must still develop our economies – it’s the same for all Baltic countries, Russia in Kaliningrad and probably Poland also; restructuring is still on-going and big investments are still needed.
How is Zemnieku Saeima protecting the Baltic Sea?
Our organization– which is now 11 years old – has from the very beginning had a membership consisting of the more progressive farmers. They are the farmers who have the newest technology and I hope they are the ones with a more favourable attitude towards the environment.
We as an organization have always participated in different agri-environmental projects. We’ve had different projects about environmental legislation for farmers; we’ve prepared different information material about environmental legislation in the EU and in our country. We’ve had demonstration projects and new technology transfers projects. We are trying to educate our farmers and to ensure that they have all the tools needed to be more effective and not to pollute the environment.
How are you contributing to the Baltic Compass project?
We are the only farmers’ organization involved in the project so we feel our role in the project is to put our ideas on the line. Because we represent the farmers, it is really important for us to see real, concrete outcomes and results for the farmers.
