Intensification/Extensification of crop production may go along with a change in pesticide use. The transformation of large proportion of grassland in in arable cropping area and vice versa has a marked influence on nitrate leaching: due to mineralisation, the ploughed grassland releases a significant amount of nitrates into the soil (Laurent et al., 2004). The newly introduced rules on Greening within the current framework of CAP (2014-2020) therefore have limited the proportion of grassland which may be turned over.

At EU-level, the main indicator is the trend in the shares of UAA managed by low, medium and high intensity farms, the supporting indicator is the average input expenditure per ha in constant input prices (Eurostat, 2018). Data are collected by the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN, 2018). At regional level, data may be collected from local farmers.