Water Quality and Agriculture
Meeting the Policy Challenge

Improving water quality is consistently ranked as a top environmental concern in OECD public opinion surveys. The key challenges for policy makers in addressing water quality issues in agriculture are to reduce water pollution while encourage benefits, such as maintaining aquatic life. This book examines linking policies, farm management and water quality. It looks at recent trends and prospects for water pollution from agriculture and the implications of climate change. It assesses the costs and benefits of agriculture's impact on water systems, and presents a series of case studies. Finally the report provides a set of recommendations for countries for meeting the challenge of improving agricultural water quality.
Also available in: French
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Key Messages
The key challenges for policy makers in addressing water quality issues in agriculture are to reduce farm contaminant lost into water systems while encourage agriculture to generate or conserve a range of benefits associated with water systems (e.g. recreational use). Water pollutants from agriculture include runoff and leaching into water systems from nutrients, pesticides, soil sediments, and other contaminants (e.g. veterinary products).
Also available in: French
- Click to access:
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Click to download PDF - 319.78KBPDF
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Click to Read online and shareREAD