Water management and irrigated agriculture in Italy: multicriteria analysis of alternative policy scenarios

Abstract

Irrigated agriculture in Europe is facing major changes, due to the reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy and the coming into force of the new Water Framework Directive (60/2000). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the perceived outcome of different scenarios from the point of view of different stakeholders, as an instrument to support policy in the sector of irrigated farming. The methodology is based on the multicriteria analysis of water and agricultural policy scenarios and is applied in five study areas in Italy. The pay-offs for different stakeholders differ greatly between scenarios. Basic contrasts between farmer-related and environmental/water institutions are emphasised when facing different futures. This shows that greater coordination is necessary to provide consistent policies and appropriate incentives to farmers

Policy reforms to promote efficient and sustainable water use in Swiss agriculture

“…A major drawback of water pricing compared to subsidies is that agricultural pohcy makers and farmers can have problems accepting it as a measure (Bartolini et al, 2010), and the introduction of a water price can therefore be 'politically dangerous' (Ward, 2007) and generate significant political opposidon (Johansson et al, 2002). However, this may pardcularly be the case if the basic human needs or incomes of stakeholders involved are at high risk (Ward, 2007).…”

Key issues and trends in the water policy literature

“…In 2010, three papers dealt with participatory management and user associations (Asthana 2010;Bandyopadhyay, Shyamsundar et al 2010;Gunchinmaa and Yakubov 2010) while the other papers were more diverse in their focus. Narayanamoorthy (2010) examined the sustainability of India's use of groundwater for irrigation, Bartolini et al (2010) used multi-criteria analysis of policy scenarios for Italian irrigated agriculture, Huffaker (2010) examined water use and biofuel production, while Jothiprakash and Mohandoss (2010) at an planning model for a run-of-the-river system, and Palerm-Viqueira (2010) examined historical irrigation water management in Spain and Latin America. In 2011, two papers examined participatory water management (Boyer, Speelman et al 2011;Kumnerdpet and Sinclair 2011), while three papers related to the efficiency of irrigation water use (Kumar and Palanisami 2011;Qureshi, Grafton et al 2011;Ramirez, Ward et al 2011), and three papers discussed decision support systems or modelling tools (Hadihardaja and Grigg 2011;Jothiprakash, Arunkumar et al 2011;Khan, Rana et al 2011).…”

Farmers’ Willingness to Participate in Small-Scale Farmland Water Conservation Construction in China

“…Their results show that the policy of managing water demand has little effect on the regional environment and leads to a decrease in farm income and crop varieties and an increase in direct and indirect unemployment. A third view, i.e., a compromise view, e.g., Bartolini et al [9], proposes that water price has inconsistent effects on different objectives and interest groups.…”