Italian Policy Framework for Water in Agriculture - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 342

The most important role of regional rural development programmes is the water
qualitative protection aims. In effect, rural development programmes represent the only
programming instrument used in order to pursue reduction of diffuse pollution produced
by agriculture, because it involves farms directly, so it acts on environmental pressure
levels of agricultural activities, rather than on responsibility attribution (the principle
“polluters pay”), which is difficult to define for non-point pollution. This instrument is
voluntary, which means that farmers can decide if they want to join it or not. Upon
joining the programme, farmers receive economic support for application of the
environmental prescriptions. The agri-environmental measures prescribe actions which
aim to reduce the use of nutrients and pesticides. In particular, measures entitled
“biological agriculture” and “integrated agriculture” are called “cross” measures because
of the general environmental benefits that they produce. It is difficult to extrapolate the
effective and specific contribution of every measure on water quality, especially for
measures not explicitly finalised to qualitative protection (effects on water bodies derive
from actions finalised to soil defence). 22

4. Critical factors concerning water use for irrigation

Analysing the relationship between agriculture and water resources at the national
level, it emerges that several critical factors characterise the national context, some of
which have recently been objects of the agricultural and environmental policies.
The most important factor is that agriculture is not included, at the institutional level,
in the Integrated Water Cycle, but there are specific institutions and agencies managing
water for the primary sector.
Regarding planning of water use, there are delays in the application of national laws
and the authorisations for water withdrawals are sometimes expired or not updated. For
these reasons, planning of water use is not efficient. Moreover, in the case where the river
basin plans have been defined, irrigation is often not included because of its different
history in the last few decades and because of its particular requirements. However, this
situation creates serious problems of coordination and of policies' effectiveness,
especially considering that in many river basins water withdrawals for irrigation prevail
with respect to the other water uses.
Moreover, another critical factor at the planning level is the absence of an exhaustive
knowledge of water use for agriculture. There is a strong need for support instruments at
the national level in order to elaborate strategies of integrated planning and to find better
political answers for the territory. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a common
information base to compare conditions, requirements and, consequently, choice
priorities. Regarding water quality, a monitoring net already exists at a regional level, but
regarding water use for irrigation a monitoring net is not yet available. Therefore, the
Italian Ministry of Agriculture is working (with INEA) to realise it.
Regarding programming , the complex arrangement of competencies makes hard to
reach a good integration among all political actions regarding water. Anyway, during the
last few years the degree of coordination between national and local competent
administrations is increasing, producing positive impact on water saving and water
protection.

22. Mantino, F., Monteleone, A. e Storti, D. (eds) (2005).