Environmental programmes for the restructuring of animal husbandry in Lithuania
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Lithuania is a country where animal production forms the major part of agriculture. During the current period of transition and before the planned entry into the EU, the Lithuanian agriculture is being restructured extensively. One of the most important processes involved is the shift from natural resource consuming and polluting farming methods to sustainable and ecological agriculture which leads to important changes in the farming structures Lithuania was the first country in Centra l and Eastern Europe to develop strategic guidelines, legislation and programmes at government level for the transition to ecological farming: Strategic guidelines; The ecological restructuring starts in the most sensitive area - the Karstic region of Northern Lithuania - and shall be extended to the whole territory of Lithuania. Legal basis; This basis gives high priority to ecological farming and encourages it by providing government support for investment projects. National environ mental pilot programme “Tatula” which was developed by experts and approved by the government in 1987–1993. The implementation first started in the Karstic region of Northern Lithuania (Tatula is the name of a small river in the Karstic region). National Agriculture Development Programme. This year the “Tatula” programme was extended this year to the entire Lithuanian territory. Non-government organizations and agricultural research, training and extension institutes have also given g reat impetus to the movement of ecological agriculture. The “Gaja” society is one of the most famous and successful ones among these organizations. The “Tatula” programme has been implemented for five years. The programme develops ecological, sustainable and alternative farming. At the same time the programme puts great emphasis on ecological training, extension, research and ecological monitoring. The target for the year 2005, set by the strategic guidelines and the “Tatula” programme, is that ecological farming will constitute 5% or 40,000 ha of agricultural land in the Karstic region and 80,000 ha in all Lithuania. Lithuania has 33 large pig raising complexes with a capacity of 12,000 to 54,000 pigs per year. The aggregate pollution of these enterprises is equivalent to the pollution of a city with a population of 5 million. In 1996 a separate national programme was approved to convert these complexes into sustainable farms.