Baseline information on agricultural practices in the EU ... - Europabio

2 Methodology
This survey of the practices commonly used in European maize cultivation is based on <strong>information</strong>
retrieved from public sites of governments, research institutes, peer-reviewed scientific literature,
farmers’ organisations, seed organisations, seed companies and expert opinions provided by
EuropaBio member companies. Most of the documents represent recommendations from research
institutes and professional organisations. While the practice of an individual farmer will be determined
by different factors and may be different from the recommendations of the public sites mentioned
above, they should also be taken into consideration as they represent an optimal management
situation and should lead to implementation of policy decisions. Therefore, when available,
<strong>information</strong> is included on the actual crop management practices as performed by the farmers. Also it
is recognized that practices may differ within Members States and where applicable, indications on
regional differences have been included. Where available, the <strong>information</strong> was further complemented
with a review of policy statements that would indicate the direction of the future of agriculture in the
EU.
The <strong>information</strong> was organized following the sequence of activities that a farmer performs when
cultivating a maize crop. Furthermore it was structured on a geographical basis, following the
structure implemented in the Regulation on Plant Protection Products 1 . This approach identifies 3
geographical zones as areas where agricultural, plant health and environmental (including climatic)
conditions are comparable (see Table 1).
Table 1: EU geographic zones (based on the Regulation on Plant Protection Products)
Zone Geography Member States
A North Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden
B Centre Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom
C South Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain
Care was taken to collect <strong>information</strong> covering all relevant zones and focusing on the major producers
in order to get a representative view on the range of agricultural practices across the EU.
Where possible and relevant, a distinction has been made between a maize crop grown for silage or
for grain.
1 Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009
concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives
79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC; OJ 24/11/2009 L 309, p.1-50)
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