Malta faces a raft of water challenges which are negatively impacting on the sustainability of irrigated agriculture, and creating serious tensions with other sectors competing for water, including urban development, tourism and the environment. In this paper we argue for a transparent process centred on participatory stakeholder engagement to agree on the most challenging water-related risks and to identify solutions that both support the water governance framework and improve on-farm water management practices. Given Malta's dependence on freshwater, this study focused on outdoor field-scale irrigated production. A three staged stakeholder-driven approach was developed. The first stage included Delphi analyses to identify the key constraints on water management and fuzzy cognitive mapping to enable stakeholders to analyse their mental models and formalise conceptual and causal relationships between different components impacting on Maltese agriculture. Secondly, questionnaires were used to inform understanding of national policy gaps in water management and thirdly, a "backcasting" stakeholder workshop was used to identify policy actions to achieve a more sustainable future for agriculture on the island. The study confirmed that Malta's core challenge is tied to poor water governance and the need to define policies that are socially and environmentally acceptable and geared to tackling the complex water challenges the agricultural sector faces. Developing support for farmer training, knowledge translation, greater public awareness of the importance and value of water for high-value crop production and multi-sector collaboration to promote shared opportunities for water infrastructure investment were highlighted as potential solutions. The findings have direct relevance to other island communities where water scarcity poses serious agronomic risks to production and where agriculture underpins rural livelihoods and the economy.
Maltese agriculture faces great challenges due to the severe scarcity of water. Sufficient water resources, in quantity and quality, are necessary to cover the demand in the production of wine grape, one of the most important crops in Maltese agriculture. But also, economic efficiency is essential in the grape cultivation. A Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is defined for Maltese vineyards in the Siġġiewi region, considering two irrigation scenarios, irrigation with groundwater or "do-nothing", compared with the "use non-conventional waters" from mixing water from a small desalination plant and groundwater. For the alternative 'mixing desalinated water with groundwater' it is possible to improve water availability and quality for vine crops, while increasing economic benefits for farmer. The results indicate a profitable project from a minimum area of 1 ha, but final benefit is highly dependent on the irrigated surface extension according to water price. Desalination, compared with other type of non-conventional water is considered the best option in this assessment with a small reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant (120 m/day) for covering the irrigation needs.
The future sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean island communities faces a raft of economic, environmental and socioeconomic challenges. Many of these are inextricably linked to the extreme levels of water scarcity that exist in the region. With a focus on Malta, we developed a water strategy to identify the priorities for action to support decision makers, practitioners and the agrifood industry in achieving agricultural and water resources sustainability. The methodology involved a combination of evidence synthesis, to inform the development of a Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework. These priorities were then used to define a set of key actions under three thematic pillars of sustainability (environment, economy and society). Our analysis confirmed that irrigated agriculture in Malta is not only impacted by environmental factors such as the challenging climate and geography of the region, but is also strongly influenced by a range of economic (tourism development, European Union accession) and societal (population growth, environmental regulation) drivers of change. The developed strategy is underpinned by priority actions relating to improved water and soil management. The reduction of water and energy footprints in crop production, the establishment of demonstration farms and the support of policies that promote "value adding" activities are examples of key priority actions for the environmental, economic and societal pillar respectively. Regarding the scale of intervention, the analysis distinguishes research as being important for supporting many of the economy-focused actions.
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.
Water security is a hot topic all over the world, due to global warming, climate change, natural calamities such as droughts and floods, overuse of water, and other factors. Water issues have been scientifically investigated from several perspectives, namely institutional, economic, social, environmental, managerial, and technological. However, the technological aspects of irrigation and water supply for smallholder farmers in the Mediterranean region have not been adequately addressed. This paper explores irrigation and water supply technologies for smallholder farmers in the selected Mediterranean countries (Egypt, Malta, Morocco, and Portugal). The methods of analysis are literature review, fieldwork, and observation. The literature survey reveals that Mediterranean countries share many common features in terms of climate, water and land resources, and development issues. Nevertheless, the selected countries in the Mediterranean region (Egypt, Malta, Morocco, and Portugal) differ in terms of type of crops, water management regulations, labor force availability, financial sustainability, and economic approaches. These remarks signal the need for applying a specific approach in selecting a technology for irrigation and water supply according to the regional context. Additionally, the financial and economic perspectives of the three key technologies (i.e., SLECI, desalination technology, and engineering constructed wetlands) require further analysis.
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