CONCLUSIONS BY MR. ANTONIS CONSTANTINOU

Transcription

1 What's the role of the EU in sustainable water usage in agriculture? Conference organised by the European Commission, DG for Agriculture and Rural development within the Expo Zaragoza 2008 "Water and Sustainable development' 11 July 2008, Zaragoza, Spain CONCLUSIONS BY MR. ANTONIS CONSTANTINOU Many speakers and participants have underlined the important challenges which agriculture is facing, such as guaranteeing food security, providing quality and diversified products at affordable prices, and respecting environmental resources. EU farm production needs to be simultaneously productive and sustainable, as Mr, Le Foll has recalled. Agriculture is the main user of water. Agricultural activity takes about 60 per cent of the total water resources and therefore has the highest potential for water saving. On the other hand, irrigation plays an important role in the agriculture of the Southern countries of the EU. In some Member States this irrigated land may constitute 20% but contribute up to 60% of the value of agricultural production. Irrigation can boost production value and profits fourfold and is, therefore, an important factor contributing to the competitiveness of agriculture and food production. Furthermore, as it has been repeatedly mentioned during this morning, irrigated agriculture also plays a social role in keeping the population in rural areas and helping to achieve a balanced territorial development. However, intensive agriculture can also be a source of concerns: overexploitation of surface and underground water can lead to nonsustainable production systems and pollution with nitrates and pesticides can create additional problems.

2 This is an area where environmental regulation can play an important role. Incentives are also important especially when new standards are being introduced. How to adapt to water scarcity and climate change? Some speakers have strongly underlined that water is a scarce resource and is increasingly becoming scarcer. Agriculture will be one of the sectors most affected by changing climatic conditions and most of the negative impacts will come through changes in availability of water and in hydrological cycles. Water is a vital resource and a public good and all users, including farmers, and public administrations have a responsibility for its sustainable use and management. In the coming years we will have to adapt to the effects on water of the evolving changes in climatic conditions; this is a great challenge, and we will need to put into practice a combination of demand, supply, and efficiency measures, and many kinds of supporting instruments; an ambitious and comprehensive policy acting on may fronts can offset and even reverse the negative trends. The provision and improvement of water supply infrastructure and irrigation will continue to play an important role to ensure supply of water. But, in the perspective of scarcer water resources, irrigation plans will need to be based on careful assessments of their impacts and on future local water availability. However, infrastructural solutions are not the only way out; alone they cannot cope with increasing water shortages and projected drought frequency; a future strategy must encompass a range of policies and tools.

3 Changes in cropping patterns and farming practices will also be necessary; farmers have to take their responsibilities in managing water as they also receive public support, as the Commissioner has clearly stated. There is a need to stimulate a choice of crops and varieties more adapted to the climate situation: there is a need to do proper choice of soil uses, crops and varieties adjusted to the capacity of the existing resources. In this respect, it has also been proposed to take a more comprehensive approach and to enhance natural and agronomic mechanisms to work in a synergetic way to improve soil, water and inputs management. The role of new technology and agronomic research as also been mentioned to help find new solutions for raising water availability or for reducing water use by farming activities; Also, new economic instruments will be useful to complement more traditional options for managing water, for instance flexible systems to collectively manage water in case of water shortages or prolonged drought What's the role of the EU in the sustainable water usage? We can summarize all the contributions of this debate in the following actions: The Rural Development Policy has an important role to play now and in the future. First of all, modernisation of irrigation systems and the irrigation infrastructures is a key instrument.

4 The representatives from the Portuguese and Spanish governments have shown the importance of the Investments in modernising the existing irrigation systems. It has been said that in the period in Spain there has been an important financial effort to invest in the modernisation if the irrigation systems, a total investment of more than 5000 Million Euro, and there has been investments in more than hectares. But in Spain there are still more than 1 million Hectares of land still irrigated by flooding. So there is still a need of important investments in this area. As it has been mentioned this morning, the Spanish authorities will also make an important effort in this domain during the period The representative of Portugal insisted on the importance of improving the storage of surface waters, also in the investments in small and medium water reservoirs to store water from winter for use during the dry season. Climate change may in fact, increase the need for such investments. However, strict environmental impact studies and a thorough analysis of the water balance in a particular region have an instrumental role to play when promoting new projects. The Commission also takes note of the negative impact that the energy prices have in projects of modernisation of the irrigation systems. Second, Agro-environmental measures should have and continue to play an important role for managing water in agriculture and I have the impression that the potentialities of these measures have not always been utilised in full in the area of water management. Given that according to the WFD, MS will have to finalise their River Basin Management Plans by 2009, we also expect that a new whole set of measures will be soon put in place to restore good flow patterns of surface water, protect wetlands, prevent floods and enhance water saving and better adapted agricultural land uses and practices.

5 The new River Management Plans have the additional advantage and taking into account the specific local conditions of promoting cooperation in transregional and transnational river courses. Rural Development Policy is already well equipped to provide incentives in this respect but additional instruments may have to be devised in particular for promoting collective actions to better conserve and manage the available water resources. The Commission expects in fact, with the Health Check, that the Member States will have more resources available to do more measures to improve water management. The new modulation will imply additional 10 Billion Euro in the Rural Development Programmes for the new challenges. Modulation is not to take money away from the farmers. Modulation is the best instrument to have enough resources to face these new challenges. It is true that cross-compliance will play an increasing role in water management too. A full application of the Cross-compliance in this domain would however be very premature. The Commission has confirmed that there is no such intention for the time being. On the other hand, the Commission has proposed a new requirement for farmers to ensure that they leave buffer strips alongside watercourses and that they respect the authorisation procedures for using water for irrigation. These two new requirements are considered to be sufficient for the time being. Demanding standards under the WFD can, on the other hand, require additional incentives to be provided to the farmers. Voluntary action on the basis of incentives continues to play an important role in the sphere of environmental policies and public goods.