Le poids de l'agriculture dans la répartition et l'usage de l'eau

Abstract

[fre] L'accroissement récent des besoins en eau agricole provient pour une grande partie du développement de l'irrigation individuelle dans des régions peu irriguées auparavant. Il amène parfois à des compétitions d'usage et à des impacts négatifs sur le milieu. De plus l'irrigation nécessite des investissements coûteux. Cependant, le développement récent de l'irrigation montre bien qu'elle constitue pour l'agriculteur comme pour la collectivité, une réponse à un contexte économique difficile. Concilier ces attentes ainsi que le respect du milieu naturel passe par des économies d'eau, une planification adaptée et une gestion locale de la ressource en eau. Il n'est effectivement pas possible de prendre une position générale et uniforme sur l'opportunité de l'irrigation du fait de la diversité des situations. [eng] Irrigation and water resources management in France . Development of individual irrigation in areas that were not much irrigated before is the main cause for the recent increase of water requirements for agricultural purposes. Sometimes, this entails competition for the use of water and harmful consequences for the environnement. Moreover, irrigation requires costly investments. However, the development of irrigation shows it is the answer chosen by farmers and the community to face the economic difficulties of the agriculture. Coming up to the water demand and protecting the environnement requires water savings, adequate planning and local management of water ressources. In fact, the large variety of encountered situations makes it impossible to end up with a general and uniform statement about the irrigation opportunity.

Tracing the Impact of Agricultural Policies on Irrigation Water Demand and Groundwater Extraction in France

“…As a result, direct payments for irrigated could be as high as 80% above the 7 payments for dry cereal crops (Martin, 1996, see also Table 2 for examples of direct payments on dry and irrigated crops). Overall, the MacSharry reforms in France did not lead to the removal of all incentives to grow irrigated maize and cereals, which still benefited from higher CAP payments and better market conditions (Hurand, 1998;Simon, 1998).…”

“…The development of rural areas has been a priority for the French government since the immediate post Second World War period. Initially focused on modernising agriculture, rural development policy progressively broadened its scope to promote the development of rural infrastructure, the economic diversification of rural areas and, more recently, the management of natural resources and environmental protection (Perrin et al, 2003;Dechambre, 2007;Vandenbroucke, 2013).…”

“…The resulting report (Martin, 2013) and stakeholder consultation led to a first ministerial decree in 2015 (RF, 2015) setting out new conditions on water agencies funding of compensatory reservoirs. More specifically, funding for compensatory reservoirs should be justified through local "projets de territoire" (i.e.…”

“…The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was launched in 1962, guaranteeing minimum commodity prices to European farmers. In parallel, a vigorous policy to modernise agriculture was initiated via subsidies for agricultural equipment and infrastructure such as irrigation schemes (Perrin et al, 2003;Dechambre, 2007). Thanks to CAP incentives, private investments and technical progress, food production increased by 64% between 1960 and 1980 and France became the second net exporter of food product worldwide in 1981 (Brun et al, 2006).…”