Futureproof farming water management

Introduction

Water scarcity and droughts are an increasingly frequent and widespread phenomenon across the world and are becoming more common in the European Union (EU). This leads to water scarcity, which can have destabilizing effects on countries and regions.

Agriculture and Water Use

In the EU, agriculture represents 31% of total water use and is highly dependent on irrigation in many countries, which is expected to grow with increasing global warming. Water is the most important productivity driver in farming; therefore, increasing water scarcity imposes great challenges for farming and threatens the future EU's access to food.

Precision Farming Technology

Precision farming technology is expected to significantly contribute to combating water scarcity while optimizing productivity. Currently, most farmers do not use measurement technology to determine the optimal timings, amounts, and areas to irrigate their fields. This often leads to unnecessary water usage and local under- or over-irrigation, resulting in productivity loss.

Project Goals

The main goal of the project is to prepare the EU's farming sector for the increasing occurrence of droughts and water scarcity by optimizing water usage through precision farming technology.

Secondary Objectives

A second objective is to enable farmers to future-proof their business model by:

1. Increasing profitability
2. Enabling sustainable farming practices

Implementation

In this project, we will deploy 450 sensors and enable 150 farmers to use technology with crop- and soil models based on the latest scientific insights in different European countries during the farming season of 2023.

Selected Countries

The countries that are selected for the project are the most intense users of water for agricultural purposes. The six countries—Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Romania, and Greece—together account for over 90% of the total water usage in the EU for agriculture.

Future Adoption

There will be particular attention placed on stimulating the adoption of the solution after the project, such that significant contributions can be made to combating water scarcity in the EU in the future.