NON-POINT SOURCES POLLUTION AND BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

The evaluation of the effect of agricultural management practices on non-point source pollution (NPS) pollution on local, regional, and global scale has become a key component of strategies for achieving sustainable agriculture and mitigating harmful environmental impacts. Decision makers want and need to know in advance the fate and behavior of agrochemicals applied to the soil surface and whether they pose a threat to soil and groundwater resources. This is a challenging requirement. Assessment of NPS pollutants is a complex, multidisciplinary environmental problem that encompasses coupled physical and chemical processes that occur across disparate spatial and temporal scales. The detrimental environmental and health effects of NPS pollutants, even at low concentration, are chronic rather than acute. The NPS pollution are of greater environmental concern than point source pollutants because they are ubiquitous and the task of cleanup is costly and nearly impossible to accomplish. Less expensive pollution prevention strategies are preferred that advantageously anticipate and prevent NPS pollution before it occurs and avoid the future need for costly remediation efforts. Therefore, Best Management Practices (BMP) - policies and strategies, are needed to help reducing NPS pollution and thereby ensuring sustainability in food production. For all the reasons above described, the International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage considered important to encourage the scientific community to give attention to the NPS issue and to bring to the fore the environmental problems involved in the different countries and the BMP.