Information, Education and Extension in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

CONTENT

SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
Method of work
Staff and Organization Activities
Co-operation
Difficulties in the implementation
Deviation from plan

ESTONIAN REPORT
Introduction Summary Personnel Activities
Co-operation
Difficulties in the implementation

LATVIAN REPORT
Introduction Activities
Co-operation
Difficulties in implementation
Deviations from original terms of reference

LITHUANIAN REPORT
Summary Activities
Co-operation
Difficulties in the implementation
Deviations from the plan

Summary (top)

FULFILLMENT OF OBJECTIVES

In this project LRF has been responsible for education/training, information and advisory service.
In the project proposal, LRF put forward the objective of 420 participants in the education/training activities. This objective has been fulfilled 10 times over.
During the project we have carried out 192 activities with 4570 participants.

A basic training and information package, with farmers as the target-group, has been devised with the help of Swedish experts. The material has been translated and adapted to each country. It has been spread via different channels - education, extension service, schools, farming organizations etc.
Complementary to this general material each country has produced a number of specific information packages for use in the seminars and also to provide information for farmers.
Essential to the fulfillment of the project has been the close cooperation between the advisory services in each country. In each country one domestic coordinator has been responsible for the co-ordination and implementation of the project.

OTHER EFFECTS OF IMPLEMENTED ACTIVITIES

It is difficult to measure the direct effects of the project. One indirect way is to gauge the common interest in our activities among the target groups. The interest has been much higher than expected. The most important effect of the project is that a process has been instigated towards a more sustainable form of agriculture and the knowledge relating to the measures that can be taken at the farm level has been transferred. There has also been a development of the capacity, mainly within the advisory services, to implement environmental projects.

CONCLUSIONS

Introduction (top)

NAME: Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF)

PROJECT COUNTRIES: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

TOTAL BUDGET: 4 000 000 SEK

METHOD OF WORK

The participation of our co-operation organizations in the entire work process of developing and implementing is essential. The existing network of contacts both between Sweden and the Baltic States and within the advisory service organizations and the farmers' organization in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is used as extensively as possible.
The work within the project has developed towards less input by Swedish consultants and more involvement from our Baltic counterparts. In all three countries we have one adviser as our coordinator, who works closely together with the Swedish coordinator and one Swedish adviser. This creates a personal relationship under which the day to day problems can be discussed and solved.

The method for our work can be divided into three steps:

1. 1994-1995, seminars and other activities with input of Swedish experts to inform and create an interest for the BAAP project.
2. 1995-1996, training of advisers and key-persons that could extend the know-how to other target-groups.
3. 1996-1997, training and information to a lager number of participants trough seminars and to involve the BAAP-subjects into other regular activities of the agricultural advisory services.

A principle in our work to reach farmers with information and to make things happen on farm level, is to use economy and tectonics as a starting point and after that go into the real problem with run-off.
An important headline in our seminars and in the information material is "The economic value of manure".

Latvia

In Latvia we co-operate mainly with the Latvian Agricultural Advisory Centre in Ozolnieki but also to some extent with LZF, Latvian Farmers Federation and LAAC. The Latvian co-ordinator was until 1996 Juri Silis and during i997 Aivars Lapins from Latvian Agricultural Advisory Center.
During the initial phase of the project we had some problems in finding the right way to co-operate with LAAC caused by unclear relations between LZF and LAAC. This problem was solved during the two last years of the project.

Lithuania

In Lithuania we co-operate mainly with Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory and Training Centre (LAAS) in Kedainiai. In LAAS we have a full-time working co-ordinator, Mr Rimas Magyla.

A basic training and information material with farmers as the target-group, has been worked out with an input of Swedish experts. The material has been translated and adapted to each country. It has been spread through different channels, education, extension service, schools, farming organizations etc. The material consist of one booklet, "Nutrients, a resource on your farms".
Some parts of this material have been used as articles in farm magazines and printed as small booklets.
We have also translated the books "Manure-handling" into Estonian, Lithuanian and English. In co-operation with the BEAROP group we have also translated "Vaxtnaring - Hushallning - Miljo" into English. These books are mainly used by the advisors and teachers, but it will also give those farmers that have a special interest an opportunity to enter more deeply into the subject.
As a complement to this general material each country has produced a number of special material for the seminars and also for information to farmers, these materials are descried in the country reports.
To reach the students at agricultural schools a poster and teachers guidelines are produced. This is a very basic material that could be used in the regular education. Through this material we hope also to reach the hobby growers with some information.

CO-OPERATION

We co-operate very closely with both the farmers' organizations and the agricultural advisory service in each country. This co-operation has worked out very well during the project. We have used the already established contacts that we had before the project started. We have also had the possibility to co-ordinate the BAAP activities with our other activities in order to be more effective in our work.
Of course, we co-operate with the BEAROP-group. This co-operation has become even closer when all the demonstration activities are running in the watersheds.
In Latvia one member of the team is Maira Dzeizkaleja, involved in the Danish who is also Environmental Project. The project co-ordinator, Aivars Lapins, is also involved in the EU Phare Demonstration Project. Since November 1995 we have one representative in the "Committee for Co-ordination of Environment-agricultural Matters in Latvia". The committee consists of representatives from Ministry of Environment and Regional Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Latvian University of Agriculture, Latvian Agriculture Advisory Service and Latvian Farmers' Federation.
In Lithuania we co-operate with the Danish Environmental project (BALTICUM), Association of Organic-Biological Agriculture (GAJA) and the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION

The main difficulties have been:
• The hard economic situation for agriculture has made it very difficult to convince farmers to invest in manure handling system. This is by far the hardest task for the project to solve. Without any credits directed to investments in manure handling equipment and manure storage it is very hard for the farmers to invest. In spite of that we could in Lithuania see some examples of farmers who are now planning to invest in better manure handling on their farms.

• In some chases it was very difficult to achieve farmers' and advisors' motivation to attend at our activities if the subjects was more narrow BAAP subjects like "balance of nutrient". To increase the motivation among the participants and the output of our activities we introduced other closely related subjects like technical issues and crop production. We believe that through this we have reached a larger number of participants and there has not been any contrast to the objectives of the project.

• A common feature for all work in the Baltic states is that you must work on a very long-term basis. A small, three year project like BAAP could just be the start of something. To really attain a change towards a more environmentally friendly agriculture you have to work on a very long term basis and with bigger resources.

• Language is always a problem, from both the Swedish and the domestic side. The most obvious example of that is translations of our study and information material where we had to change translators and make a lot of corrections. This has had the effect that the production and the printing of the material were heavily delayed.

DEVIATION FROM PLAN

We are convinced that the project and the activities will be fulfilled. But it is hard or even impossible to estimate the environmental benefits and impact on short-term for our kind of activities. During the last year of the project we will start to discuss what kind of indicators could be used to measure the impact of the project to reach the overall objectives. One way to measure the impact of the project and also the more general attitude among farmers towards environmental issues are investigations through questionnaires. We have done that in Lithuania and our aim is to repeat this on a regularly basis to see the changes in attitudes.
In comparison with the application we have educated and trained more people in shorter courses. In the application we said that our target was 420 participants in five day seminars/courses. The result was tenfold, 4570 participants in mainly one day field-days/seminars/courses. The reason for this, as we mentioned in previous reports, are practical matters like transport, milking hours, no relief service for farmers etc. In the evaluation after the seminars the participants have mention that two days are the most suitable length for the seminars.
As we mentioned in the previous reports we have changed the system of advisers included in BAAP We have only one key adviser full time and a team of advisers around him.

Estonian report (top)

INTRODUCTION

The objective of the BAAP project was to improve the water quality of the Baltic Sea as well as of local surface and ground water bodies by implementing immediately applied actions and more long-term strategies to reduce agricultural run-off. The duration of the BAAP project was September 1994 - June 1997.
The BAAP project contained demonstration activities including monitoring at farm and watershed level, education and extension projects, transfer of technologies and establishment of suitable arrangements for connecting demonstration activities with environmental and agricultural research and regulatory systems of the country or region.

Education methods were:

• arrangement of seminars for advisers (persons participating in the seminars will spread their knowledge to others);
• compiling and publishing of written materials, which will be used during the study process;
• field days - local people get together on the field of one another or research fields to see and discuss about plant production questions

SUMMARY

During the period from 1994 to 1997  the following seminars were organized in Estonia;

Seminars for advisers and teachers in Janeda Training and Advisory Center:

Written material

During this period two booklets were compiled and published.

• "Manure storages", author Vello Luts from Janeda Training and Advisory Centre;

• "Taking of soil samples", author Livi Rooma from Janeda Training and Advisory Centre.

In the end of 1996 booklet by Tord Karlsson "Soil and other resources in your farm" was published in Estonia.
During the seminars "Environmentally friendly agriculture" we have made overhead films and seminar materials (booklets) for the following topics:

We have also translated the book "Manure handling" to the Estonian language.

PERSONNEL

All activities were arranged by co-operation work by Estonian Central Farmers Union and Janeda Training and Advisory Center.
Project co-ordinator was Vello Luts form Janeda Training and Advisory Center. During the "Environment seminar" in Janeda Training and Advisory Center Mr. Tord Karlsson participated in our seminar as a lecturer. He also wrote the booklet "Soil and other resources in your farm". This material was used as study material during the all seminars, organized in Estonia during 1996-1997.
During the seminar "Manure management" Lena Rodhe from JTI, Enn Loigu from Tallinn Technical University and Alexander Maastik from Tartu Agricultural University also participated as a lectures.
During the seminars for farmers on 28-30 March 1995 in Estonia Mr Kjell Gustafsson from Sweden and Vello Luts from Janeda Training and Advisory Center participated as lecturers.
During the field days on 20-22 June 1995 in Estonia  Mr Sven Klint from Sweden (Svalof Weibull) participated as a lecturers.
During the 1996-1997  also two plant production advisers from Janeda Training and Advisory center- Mrs. Livi Rooma and Mrs. Ene Milvaste were involved. Their responsibilities were to prepare and organize seminars and compiling of written materials for advisers and farmers.
From the Swedish side all activities were co-ordinated with Mr. Gunnar Lans (LRF). Mr Hans Augustinsson supported us with Swedish experiences and information about different matters in the plant production field. Also he participated as a lecturer in a seminar for advisors in Janeda Training Advisory Center in Valga and Voru seminars in 11-12 February 1997.
During the seminar "Manure management" 6-8 February 1996 our contact person in Sweden was Mr. Lars Neumann. He supported us with information about modern manure management, during the seminar he was also a lecturer.

ACTIVITIES

Education

During the period from 1994 to 31 May 1997 we have carried through altogether 28 courses with 575 participants. The courses were carried through with co-operation of Swedish expert Mr. Hans Augustinsson and specialists of Janeda Training and Advisory Center. All these courses were directed to farmers and plant production advisers. The headline of all these courses was agriculture in the environmental way.

Courses for land production advisers

The objective of these courses was to improve the knowledge of Estonian plant production advisers about new laws, rules and technologies of plant production to be able to help farmers to make the right decisions, which are economically and environmentally reasonable.

Courses for advisers consisted of four cycles

First cycle - overview about legislation in environmental protection. Building of manure-, silage-, pesticide- and fertilizer storage's, calculation of storage capacity, demands for storing, different storage types.
Second cycle - fertilizing of plants with organically, mineral and green manure. Nutrient balance in farm and field level. Introduction of fertilizing computer program (made in Janeda Training and Advisory Centre).
Third cycle - different plant pests and diseases and possibilities to prevent them. The most common weed and possibilities to prevent them. Plant preservative pesticides. Results of plant protection trials. Crop rotation. Mechanical weed control. Biodynamical cultivation of land.
Fourth cycle - the most common plant protection equipments. Dosing of pesticides. Testing, regulation and taking care of sprayers. Personal protectors in plant protection work.
During all the cycles participants were asked to make seminar work. After the first cycle participants had to find one real farm with a minimum five animal units and make a little eco-audit.
Eco-audit is a simple questionnaire elaborated by advisers of Janeda Training and Advisory Center. Farmer and adviser together will answer different questions. Finally, it will be possible to elaborate action programme for farm to reduce (avoid) pollution from agricultural production and living houses.
After the second cycle advisers made plant production and fertilizing plan for selected farm. Before this advisers got a first introduction of fertilizing computer program, made by specialists of Janeda Training and Advisory Center.
After the third cycle participants made an integrated plant protection plan for the previously selected farm.
During the last cycle the participants presented their home work and got final certificate. Totally, there 16 plant protection advisers certificated.

This certificate is important for two reasons:

1. This is the first seminar where almost all working plant production advisers in Estonia participated, therefore it was reasonable to give a special certificate,
   
   
2. In the beginning of July 1997 all Estonian advisers must be certificated. Advisers, who want to be certificated, must have a university degree, recommendation from farmer, written advise, diploma (certificate) of a seminar of advising technology and other seminars.

The following part shows the dates, number of participants and names of lecturers

1. Cycle - 12-13 November 1996, 22 participants. Lecturers were Mrs. Tiiu Raia from Ministry of Environmental Protection, Mr. Hans Augustinsson from Sweden and Mr. Vello Luts from Janeda Training and Advisory Center.
   
   
2. Cycle - 10-12 December 1996, 25 participants. Lecturers were Mr. Paul Kuldkepp from Tartu Agricultural University, Mr. Hans Augustinsson from Sweden, Mrs. Livi Rooma from Janeda Training and Advisory Center and representatives of private firms selling fertilizers.
   
   
3. Cycle - 28-30 January 1997, 24 participants. Lecturers were Mr. Jaanus Muur from State Department of Plant Protection, Mr. Heino L6iveke and Mrs. Tiia Paide from Saku Plant Breeding Institute, Mr. Peeter Wiil from Estonian Mechanization Institute, Mr. Hans Augustinsson from Sweden and representatives of private firms selling pesticides.
   
   
4. Cycle - 4-6 Mars 1997, 28 participants. Lecturers were Ants Rookaar from State Department of Plant Protection, Dr Andruse, Mr Hans Augustinsson from Sweden and representatives of private firms selling pesticide sprayers and products for first aid.

Courses for farmers

The objective of the courses is to improve the interest of Estonian farmers to produce in an environmentally friendly way and through this to improve their reputation among consumers.
The seminars were organized by joint work of Janeda Training and Advisory Center, local farmer's union and State Department of Plant Protection.
Farmers, who participated in seminars, obtained a certificate which gives evidence, that he/she has the right to buy and use pesticides. Without this certificate farmers are not allowed to buy and use most pesticides.
The headlines were similar to seminars for plant production advisers, only the duration of the first cycle was one day. This was economically very reasonable, because we had the opportunity to use the same study materials and overhead films.
The following part shows the place of course, dates, number of participants, names of lecturers and headline of course.

The experiences from those seminars could be summarized in the next points:

Information

During the period from 1994 to 31 May 1997 in Estonia 2. booklets have been compiled and published:

- Manure storages (54 pages, author Vello Luts);
- Taking of soil samples (11 pages, author Livi Rooma)

In the end of 1996 a booklet by Mr. Tord Karlsson "Soil and other resources in your farm" was published.

During the seminars "Environmentally friendly agriculture" overhead films and seminar materials (booklets) for the following topics have been made:

We have also translated the book "Manure handling" to Estonian.

CO-OPERATION

We co-operate closely with Farmers' Unions. During the period from 1994 to 31 May 1997 we have arranged in closed co-operation with Farmer's Union 75 local seminars with totally 472 farmers.
Thanks to the co-operation with the Danish project "The Environment-Agricultural Project Balticum all advisers can visit their field trials and use results of these trials in everyday work in different seminars and personal advising.
We have close co-operation with Tartu Agricultural University. We can use people from this university as lecturers and as a resource of new research information.
During the seminars "Environmentally friendly agriculture" we had a very fruitful co-operation with the State Department of Plant Protection. Leaders of this organization participated in seminars as lecturers. They also participated in the preparation of the seminar with new ideas etc.
In the end of April 1997 "Committee for co-ordination of Environment-Agricultural Matters" was established. Ordinary members of this committee are the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Estonian Agricultural University, Estonian Institute of Agriculture, Janeda Training and Advisory Center, Estonia Farmers' Union, Estonian Producers' Union and Tallinn Technical University.
With the help of Tallinn Technical University (BEAROP group) we organized different seminars in the watershed area in Kabala. From them we also got research information from trials made in Kabala. Several times people from this University participated in our seminars as lecturers.
By co-operating with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture we can have a lot of support. We can ask those people to participate in our seminars as lecturers, get new information about different laws and recommendations etc.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION

The main difficulties have been:

Latvian report (top)

INTRODUCTION

The Latvian Agricultural Advisory Center is a governmental organization (LAAC) established in 1990. Training, dissemination of information and advise to farmers and other clients of Advisory Center are parts of its routine actions and responsibilities. In July 1997 LAAC will become more independent from government by being privatized. 1 % of the share will belong to the Latvian Farmers' Federation as a good start of turning ownership of the advisory services into farmers' (our main client) disposal.
The BAAP programme has made advisors in the central office at Ozolnieki and regional staff more acquainted with the concepts of sustainable farming and ways to decrease agricultural run-off to the Baltic sea.
In order to implement the project a team of three to four advisors in the central office was formed in the beginning of last year (for this and other details see interim report by Juris Sillis, July 1, 1996)
Current composition (during the last 5 months of the project) of the team is Aivars Lapins (co-ordinator), Maira Dzeizkaleja (crop production expert) and Janis Kazotnicks (engineering expert).

ACTIVITIES

There were two major types of activities:

1. Seminars for farmers, advisors and school teachers
2. Preparation and dissemination of training materials on different subjects directly or indirectly related to agricultural run-off and environment
3. Promotion of farmers interest groups in crop production

Several seminars have taken place from February 1996 to June 2,1997 (see table below)

Major objectives of the seminars were:

According to seminar participants' evaluations it is clear that such activities are worth continuing and improving. The main interests are (as can also be seen in the table): Spraying and vegetable production. Regardless of the number of participants very good output and response is seen in Jekabpils. During three seminars about Swedish crop production with Latvian BAAP counterpart involvement as outside lecturers, the composition of the group of farmers is literally the same and the number of people has neither decreased nor increased. This shows that it is possible and necessary to work with groups of farmers (or advisors). This is one of the most efficient training techniques too.
Farmers' interest groups were introduced to Swedish sustainable crop production systems by a Swedish consultant. Group in Jekabpils is on their own continuing the work started.

Training materials

Every training material was attached to a certain seminar or series of seminars and disseminated in those. Often a simple and cheap version of a brochure was edited for the first seminar in series, demand was estimated and then the rest of the copies were printed in a printing company outside the LAAC.
Almost in all materials Latvia University of Agriculture researchers were major editors. Secondly but not less important, information collection and computing were done at the Centre.
In the training courses slides, OH transparents and handouts prepared by lecturers and the BAAP-team were used. Several training materials have been prepared, edited and disseminated during the project period (se table below).

CO-OPERATION

Since Aivars Lapisu is co-ordinating the EU PHARE Project "Technical Assistance to the private farm business development. Latvia 1997/98", an on-farm demonstration programme, it is made sure that no duplication is being done. The same can be said about the Danish Environmental project "Balticum", which Maira Dzelzkaleja is co-ordinating. The Danish Environmental project is on a very close track to BAAP, therefore it is even more important than regarding PHARE to make sure of most efficient use of sources and also good co-ordination and non-duplicating of activities.
During the project co-operation with commercial companies' suppliers of sprayers in Latvia has resulted in both financial help and participation with information in seminars and in editing of books. This is of very high importance to LAAC on its privatization borderline. Very important is to be sure that activities carried out in the BAAP programme are long lasting and that at least some of them can be run also on lower foreign funding after the project has ended.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION

It should be pointed out that it was very difficult to achieve farmers' and advisors' motivation to come to the seminar if the subject "Balance of the nutrients in fares" was the only one in the list. Other subjects were always used to achieve a higher degree of participation and output.

DEVIATIONS FROM ORIGINAL TERMS OF REFERENCE

There are some deviations from the original plans, which were the result of increased knowledge about activities needed and demanded. This assured a higher degree of satisfaction by recipients of services and activities. Subjects which are less directly related to the overall project objective than others (like animal housing vs. optimization of fertilizers and chemicals) made the project more colorful and responding to the real demand.

Lithuanian report (top)

SUMMARY

Objective
The objective of LAAS in the BAAP project is to reduce pollution caused by nutrients run-off and other pollutants from agricultural areas in order to get a higher profit in private farms without negative effect on the environment.

The main objective and methods of work have been differentiated according to the activities. Through information, education and extension service knowledge and understanding of these problems have been disseminated to our target group: private farmers, representatives of share companies and agricultural schools.

Information
All customers of the Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service (LAAS) should be reached with the information concerning environmental problems in agriculture connected with run-off and ammonia emission.

Education
The main idea in this activity (seminars, field days, courses) is to create an understanding among farmers, students and teachers about the environmental problems arising in the farms and the possibilities to prevent them in an economically sound way.

Extension service
The most important thing is to make some practical changes on the farm level concerning environmental issues. Therefore the local advisers together with the farmers should be involved in environmental activities on the farms.

Method of work
There exists a network of contacts between the collaborating countries, Sweden, Lithuania and other Baltic countries, Latvia and Estonia.
Within the BAAP Project in Lithuania we have close relationship with the BEAROP group in coordinating our activities.
At the beginning of the Project in 1995 all information and education activities were executed by the Swedish side, with collaboration of the Lithuanian Agricultural
Advisory Service and the Lithuanian Farmers' Union. During 1996-1997 the work within the Project has developed towards less input by Swedish consultants and more involvement from the Advisory Service side.
The main principle of the work to present the information and to make things happen at farm level is to use economy and technics as a starting point and after that go into the real problem with run-off.

ACTIVITIES

Education
As mentioned above, educational activities within the Project have developed towards less input by Swedish consultants and more involvement from the Advisory Service side. We can highlight three periods:

During the project period the following activities have been organized:

For each seminar information material with contents of the lecture has been prepared. In the seminars for farmers during the winter courses 96/97 local advisers have been using information material that was produced by Swedish and Lithuanian experts.

Overview of the educational activities:

I. 1 February - 30 June 1995.
During the period from i February till 30 June 1995 6 courses for farmers and advisers were organized. The courses were carried out by Swedish experts because these courses were the start-up of the project the project had to be well known among experts and farmers.

The headlines in the seminar were:

1. Nutrient as a resource and as a part of the ecological circulation.
2. Fertilizer and manure.
3. Plant protection and use of plant protection chemicals.
4. Manure handling.
5. The economical value of manure.
6. Agro service-cooperation with machinery.
7. Practical examples
8. How to continue? What could the adviser/teacher or the farmer do?

In the courses a special set of training material was used consisting of OH transparents, slides and study material, translated into the Lithuanian language. The experience from those seminars could be summarized in several points:

II.  30 June 1995 -  30 June 1996.
During this period 3 seminars and field days for farmers and advisers were organized; 1 seminar for the state plant protection agronomists was organized in co-operation with the Swedish Chemical Inspection KEMI; 5 seminars for farmers on "Sustainable agriculture".

The headlines of "Sustainable agriculture" seminars were as follows:

1. Manure handling

2. Crop rotation

3. Catch crops

In the seminars information material concerning these questions was used. Lecturers were invited from Water Management and Agricultural Institutes. The conclusions from these seminars are:

III. 30 July 1996 - 25 May 1997

During this period seminars were organized in two levels:

1. Seminars organized by Advisory Center for farmers and advisers;
2. Seminars organized for farmers by local advisory offices.

In total 8 "Sustainable Agriculture" seminars for farmers were organized; 1 field day at the demonstration watershed in Kedainiai; 2 seminars for teachers; 1 seminar for students and lecturers of the Agricultural University; 1 seminar for building and machinery advisers.

1. Activities of the Advisory Center

The headlines of "Sustainable agriculture" seminars were:

1. Impact of agriculture on the environment.
2. Manure and waste handling on the farm.
3. Fertilization by manure and mineral fertilizers.
4. How to use pesticides without negative impact on environment and people.

In the seminars information material concerning these questions was used, as well as the information newsletter "Importance of soil analyses to the growing crops".

The conclusions from these seminars are:

.2. Activities of local advisory offices

During the winter of 1996/97 local advisers in 18 districts have organized lectures/ seminars concerning environmental questions.

The conclusions from these seminars are:

Questionnaire for farmers "Your farm and the environment"

To indicate the changes on farm level we distributed a questionnaire to farmers in 1996 (see annex No 1). In a few years we will distribute the questionnaire for a second time. From these data it will be possible to evaluate the farmers' attitude on different matters.

Information
Information material produced over the Project period was disseminated to farmers and advisers during the seminars and field days. To make the information available to agricultural students produced information material were sent to all agricultural schools in Lithuania. At the Farmers' Union meeting in Kaunas representatives of the local Farmers' Union were informed about the activities of the Advisory Service in the BAAP project. An article concerning environmental problems in agriculture was prepared to the magazine "Mano ukis" .

Under production:

Extension service
The main objective of the activities that seek to get appreciable results in manure handling, use of mineral fertilisers and pesticides, is to reach farm level. This could be done by extension service, through individual advice to the farmers. It means that the advisers need to have good experience and information that make them sure in advice on environmental matters.

Selection of the farmer groups.
To change something on farm level, first of all a farmer needs to be sure that it will be better than it was. That opinion might be formed during discussions with other farmers and advisors who have good experience. Our objective in organizing the farmer groups was to create the discussion between the farmers about the questions that they are interested in, to explain environmental problems in agriculture and to find the best recommendations through advice and field trials on the farms.
We have organized two farmer groups in Kedainiai and Ukmerge districts. As a fundament for discussions concerning environmental agriculture we use two demonstration farms in Graisupis and Vardas watersheds and field trials on farmers' farms concerning reduced doses of pesticides and different doses of fertilizer. With members of the BEAROP group we co-operate in field trials concerning manure use.

Competition "environment - friendly farms"
We consider that the main thing is to make the farmers interested in environmental issues. It means, that they need to understand what environmental farming is and how to follow this way. One way is to work with the farmer groups which we have already started. Another way to involve the farmers into action is to organize a competition and to give them information about environmental standards in comparison with the existing situation on the farm.
To select the questions (annex No 2) for the competition we have worked with scientists from Water Management, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Institutes and also with advisers.
We have asked Ministries of Environment and Agriculture and Forestry to co-operate together in providing financial support for organizing the competition "Environment-friendly farm".

CO-OPERATION

DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION

The main difficulties were:
To convince the farmers to invest money in manure handling system. The hard economical situation makes it a hard task for the project. Without any support from the government concerning credits directed to investments in manure handling equipment and manure storage, it is very difficult for the farmers to invest.

Because of the main objective to reduce nutrient leakage and other pollutants from agriculture land to the water sources a 3 year project like BAAP could just be a start of something. Therefore it is hard to estimate the environment benefits and impacts in the short term perspective for our kind of activities.

DEVIATIONS FROM THE PLAN

We think that the project and the activities will be fulfilled. Anyway, during the project activities there are some deviations from the plan for 1997 concerning producing of information material and number of participants in the seminar/courses. The main reasons are: