Environmental risk of chemical agriculture - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 102

Figure 4.2 Correlation between the N + P quantities applied as mineral fertilizer and farmyard manure
on agricultural land in the countries of the world in 2000 (Csathó & Radimszky, 2012).
Notes: The numbers in the figure represent the EU27 countries, which are as follows:
1, Austria; 2, Belgium and Luxembourg; 3, Denmark; 4, Finland; 5, France; 6, Germany;
7, Greece; 8, Ireland; 9, Italy; 11, the Netherlands; 12, Portugal; 13, Spain; 14, Sweden; 15,
United Kingdom; 16, Bulgaria; 17, Cyprus; 18, Czech Republic; 19, Estonia; 20, Hungary; 21,
Latvia; 22, Lithuania; 23, Malta; 24, Poland; 25, Romania; 26, Slovakia; 27, Slovenia. NEU12,
new EU countries (2004, 2007) EU15, former EU countries (before 2004).
The numbers in Figures 4.1 and 4.2 illustrate this contradiction in the above-mentioned
EU countries with conflicting NP usages and balances (Csathó & Radimszky, 2012).
The cumulative N usage of certain European countries is presented in Figure 4.3
for the period 1991-2005.
For strengthening the trends in cumulated N balance surpluses in the EU27 coun-
tries, the groundwater quality data of the EU countries are shown in Figure 4.4. It is
important to note that the same sequence of countries is observed in both the 15-year
cumulated N usage and the percentage of groundwater samples above the maximum
permissible limit value for groundwater nitrate-N, i.e., 50 mg kg − 1 .
The cumulated P usage is estimated for the period 1991-2005 in Figure 4.5. (For
countries where data were only available until 2002 or 2003, NP balances for the
missing years were taken as being equal to the last recorded year.)
The usage of formulated pesticides in the European Union (Figure 4.6) was at
a stable per hectare level since the nineties until today, with a peak at the end of the
nineties. After the millennium, the European market remained stabilized on an average