The most environmentally friendly farm of the Baltic region is in Finland
WWF Jyrki Ankelo and Katariina Vapola receiced the Baltic Farmer of the Year Award from Swedbank's Thomas Johansson and WWF's Lasse Gustavsson.Finnish farmers Jyrki Ankelo and Katariina Vapola have received the Baltic Farmer of the Year Award on Thursday 26th of November. The award was presented to the couple by Thomas Johansson, Group Sponsorship at Swedbank and Lasse Gustavsson, Chairman of the WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme.
Vapola farm, which is located in Uusikaupunki on the southwest coast of Finland, has been chosen as the most environmentally friendly farm in the entire Baltic Sea region. Famers Katariina Vapola and Jyrki Ankelo received the award during an international Baltic Sea conference in Latvia.
The international jury chose Vapola as the winner among all participants of national contests in eight Baltic Sea countries The jury emphasized the couple's strong and long commitment to environmental protection, the high number of innovative measures to reduce nutrient runoff that have been implemented on their farm and the possibility that most of measures existing at Vapola farm could easily be utilized also by other farmers around the Baltic Sea.
The Vapola farm practices organic beef farming. The only fertilizer used is well-composted dry manure from the farm's own cattle and small quantities of cattle slurry. The bedding used in the animal shelters is straw and peat, which are also used to soak up the manure and urine. The covered manure yard has a subsurface drainage installed. This enables the monitoring of water quality. The drainage ditches cross a constructed wetland before entering a nearby lake which further minimizes nutrient leakage into the Baltic Sea.
Katariina Vapola believes that as the winners of the competition the couple has a duty to tell people about the importance of stopping the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea.
- By doing our part to protect the water we can reduce the total amount of nutrient runoff, says Vapola.
WWF presented the Baltic Famer of the Year Award for the first time this year. It is intended to encourage the farmers of the Baltic Sea region to take an active part in reducing eutrophication. Vapola farm received a 10 000 Euro prize provided by Swedbank in recognition of their accomplishment.
