LOWER FUEL CONSUMPTION AS NEW CHALLENGE FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND A SMALLER CARBON FOOTPRINT

Notwithstanding the good farmers' education, their knowledge about the fuel saving techniques at work with farm machinery is poor. At secondary agriculture schools where educated for, the objects dealing with agricultural techniques are reduced to. But the reduction of the fuel consumption in the process of crop production is one of the basic economic requirements. In the survey 42 % of the farmers realized that saving of the fuel is possible through the measures, but they do not know the right way; less than 2 % of farmers still do not think so. There are several manuals available dealing with the decreasing fuel consumption in agriculture but 41 % of farmers do not have this information. Only for 9 % of farmers manuals are known. In that article we described the content of the eco - driving tractors courses program dealing with the reduction of fuel consumption. The main focus is the importance to organize the communication campaigns to expand these skills. Lower fuel consumption for agricultural production also contributes to the reduction of the carbon footprint at the national and at the European level.