1. In association with
University of Cranfield and RPA
European Commission
DG Environment, Unit D1
Water saving potential in agriculture in Europe Findings from the existing studies and application to case studies
7 March 2012

2. Tour de table
Presentation of the study
Issues related to water use in agriculture
Possible responses
Responses investigated
Findings and Recommendations

3. Issues related to water use in agriculture
Definition of water saved
Saving water vs. sustainably managing water quantities
How to ensure that saving water ensures a sustainable management of water quantities/reduce the pressure by agriculture on water bodies, are there other ways to reach that target?
Water savings: reducing the amount of water used on a field, by a farmer
Boundaries: field and/or farm
Risks/Barriers: at more global level water used for other purposes, hindering use at times or in areas where it is unnecessary
Sustainable mgmt of water quantities/ Reducing pressure by agric on water bodies: Abstracting water at times and places where it is sustainable, coordinated with other users, or using “alternative” waters
Boundaries: River basin
Risks/Barriers: Difficult to implement (level of knowledge and governance required is high), acceptability issues

4. Presentation of the study
Focus: water savings in agriculture
Task 1: Review of water use, abstraction and consumption by agriculture
Task 2: Analysis of drivers in water savings in agriculture
Task 5: Identification of most viable solutions to water savings
Task 3: Analysis of relevant studies
Task 4: Case studies from specific river basins

5. Categories of possible responses:
Technological and management approaches to reduce water losses
Using Water from other sources (reuse, storage, harvesting)
Socio-economic responses (policies, pricing, awareness- raising, etc.)

6. Responses investigated (1)
Technological and management approaches to reduce water losses – i.e. identification of water losses

7. Responses investigated (1)
Description of losses to minimise (task 2), e.g. storage losses, conveyance losses, transpiration, evaporation, run-off, drainage
Further investigation of certain technological responses (task 3):
Policy implications of these options are identified for each response
Responses identified in case studies (task 4)
Improvement of irrigation systems
Irrigation scheduling
Reducing runoff
Deficit irrigation strategies
Water table management
Reduction of evaporation during storage
Changing planting date
Crop selection
Decreasing soil evaporation
CY: Efficient irrigation systems
IT: Irrinet - scheduling
FR: Cropping patterns
IT: COLT project
FR: Irrigation scheduling

8. Responses investigated (2)
Using Water from other sources (reuse, storage, harvesting)
Description of responses (task 2): water re-use, storage, and harvesting
Further investigation of certain alternative water use responses
(task 3):
Water reuse
Policy implications of this option are identified
Responses identified in case studies (task 4)
CY: Alternative water uses
UK: Winter storage reservoirs

9. Responses investigated (3)
Socio-economic responses (policies, pricing, awareness-raising, etc.)
Description of responses (task 2), e.g. regulation, auditing, pricing, consumer pressure, awareness-raising, crop selection
Such responses can be used for pushing the responses identified as 2 and 3 (e.g. advice on efficient techniques, subsidies for water reuse)
Responses identified in case studies (task 4)
FR: Regulatory limitations of water uses
FR: Water “turns”
CY: Water allocation

10. Findings and recommendations
Policies can work on:
Facilitating the uptake of the technologies (see policy implications)
Pricing (see parallel study on Water pricing in agriculture
Global actions – level of governance and hierarchies (water, waste, allocation)
Using water always involves a trade-off:
Costs
Yields
WATER
Quality of crops
Risk
Workload

11. Issues Water abstraction, consumption and use in agriculture
Difficulty in defining the terms
Availability of data is uneven:
Data available at national data, annually
What would be relevant is river basin data, seasonally – less available
Indicators are linked to the availability of data, Water exploitation index and irrigated/irrigable Utilised agricultural area are used, but remaining gaps

12. Findings and recommendations
Measurement and monitoring
Regulations
Pricing
Advice and scheduling
Techniques and practices
Collective organisation and responsibility
Alternative waters and “new” resources
Share vs. amount of agricultural water use

13. Project team and contacts
Thank you for your attention!
BIO Intelligence Service
Sandra Berman – Pierre Sonigo
University of Cranfield
Risk & Policy Analysts