Assessing the European Water Stewardship Standard in the Context ...

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Farmer A expressed that due to his organic farm management the standard is not suitable for
his operation as he is not abstracting any water for crop production. He states to only have a
minimal application of nitrogen and phosphorus through organic matter and no application of
plant protection products or other chemicals. Therefore, he neither saw the use nor the benefit
of a certification.
Farmer B stated that the standard requirements are too extensive. The amount of work and
time for a certification is considered to be too high. He also assumed that the effort is not in
proportion to the reward.
Farmer C indicated that he is already spending 40% of his working hours in the office for
desk work. The time for field work is very constrained. He could only imagine participation in
case of adequate reimbursement for the additional work load or in case it would be requested
by retailers.
Farmer D could not imagine participating in the standard. He claims that the standard is
written in a too complicated manner. He also postulated that requirements for compliance are
exaggerated and cannot be accomplished by a single farmer. From his point of view the
standard is another inordinateness of requirements for farmers.
Farmer E stated that he cannot imagine a participation in the standard system. He is already
trying to integrate good practices towards water management with buffer strips and organic
farm management. As he also has no irrigation system in place he did not see the sense to
participate in a certification for SWM.
Reasons for rejecting participation in the standard were categorized as: (i) missing
compensation, (ii) no use for farm management, (iii) too high requirements and (iv) a too
large work load (Table 9). The category of missing compensation occurred three times and
was the major reason to refuse a participation in the EWS system. No use for farm
management was indicated by both organic farmers. Two farmers indicated that the
requirements for a farm level are too excessive for a farm level and one farmer mentioned that
he considers the workload too high
.