Farmers  levels  of  knowledge  and  awareness  of environmental issues  have an  unquestionable  impact on  the  natural  world.How-ever,  in  our study,  farmers' comments  often  betrayed generalised  and  somewhat  vague  notions  of  nutrient cycling  and  their  responses  demonstrated  that  their knowledge  was  not  so  developed  and  sophisticated when it came  to  furnishing the  details.They  pri-marily gained from knowledge attained at agricultural schools  or universities,  and complemented  this  with information from the  Internet  or various  training  ac-tivities.However, farmers  interviewed during  this  project were  usually  unable to  volunteer accurate  formulas  or  gi behav-iour in soils.Older farmers  (un-der  50-years  old,  32%) predominantly  drew  on their long experience of farming and tacit knowledge gath-ered through informal channels.In addition  to the  measurable  benefits  (in-come,  revenue,  yields),  more  experienced  farmers perceived  the  environment  and  natural  resources  as important and  inseparable elements of their everyday activities.Therefore,  it should be  stressed that it is not economic pressure that is  the  most important  factor  behind farmers  changing perceptions and practices towards more environmental-orientated  activities.On the  other hand,  younger farmers  were mainly  oriented  towards short term  profits,  but were willing  to  introduce  changes  and  implement  innova-tions  if  they  expected  positive  outcomes.They tended  to have less experience of  farm-ing techniques but  had  received  a more  formal  agri-cultural education than the older farmers examined in the survey group.These regu-lations tightened measures and rules to ensure that agri-cultural  production  were compliant  with the  needs  of nature.On the basis of this research, it should be borne in mind that farmers generally understood the importance of sustainable agriculture in terms of keeping down the use  of  chemical  fertilisers.The  main  drivers  for  this approach tended to be high prices and a  need  to  fulfil EU regulations in order to benefit economically.All farmers in the EU are obliged  to fulfil  the  cross-compliance  requirements  if they wish to  receive full direct payments.In many cases (57%), the farmers  inter-viewed  took  an intuitive approach  to the problem  of sustainable nutrient  management.However,  their  own  observa-tions and  experiences were usually 'in  simpatico' with the concept of sustainable agriculture.