Maltese soil resources are a precious and finite natural resource of great agricultural, environmental, and cultural value. They have been subject to human influence over a considerable time and, owing to prolonged intensive land use, have suffered from degradation by erosion, loss of organic matter, structural deterioration, and contamination from excess nitrates, agrochemicals, and salinity. Similarly, water resources (both quantity and quality) in Malta are also under severe stress owing to socio-economic development, over-abstraction for agricultural irrigation and from diffuse pollution. This paper briefly explores the key soil and water challenges facing farmers and the agricultural sector in Malta. Selected technology based and management innovations to improve resource use efficiency, sustain productivity, and support the agricultural sector are identified and discussed. The evidence forms part of FOWARIM ‘Fostering water-agriculture research and innovation in Malta’, an EC H2020-funded twinning project that is building research capacity, supporting knowledge exchange to practitioners, and providing evidence to inform policies for government and the agricultural sector in Malta.

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Estimating evapotranspiration is crucial for better management of catchment water resources. In this study, the FAO CropWat model was used to estimate reference evapotranspiration (ETo), crop evapotranspiration (ETc), and total gross water requirements for three economically important agricultural crops grown in Malta: potatoes, wheat, and vineyards for three years representative of a typically wet (2003), average (2009), and dry (2013) year. In addition, changes in ETc due to changes in land use were estimated for 2009 and 2013 relative to a 2003 baseline. Across all three years and crops, the average ETo rates were estimated to range between 3.7 mm day -1 (2003) and 4.0 mm day-1 (2013) while average ETc rates were estimated to range between 1.6 mm day-1 and 5.3 mm day-1, respectively. For all three years, the highest total gross water requirement was estimated for wheat, reaching a maximum of 1450 mm in 2013. The results suggest that changes in land use between 2003 and 2013 were the main driver for changes in crop water demand. Differences in water demand compared to 2003 were estimated to range between -38% and 60%. This could have a substantial impact on the future sustainability of Malta’s increasingly constrained water resources.

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