Italian Policy Framework for Water in Agriculture - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 343

Water management has the same problems. In fact, the fragmentation of the water
system, characterised by many management agencies (both public and private), makes
difficult to operate an efficient water management. Moreover, an important issue regards
the “price of water” for agriculture. As shown, in Italy there is not a pricing system and
the existing contributive system, generally, is not economically efficient and it is not
oriented to water saving.
Therefore, it seems necessary to simplify competencies, and to consider the problem
of water costs in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness of water policies.

Conclusions

Water represents one of the main factors for agricultural production processes,
because it has a great impact on quality and quantity of agricultural products. This is
particularly true for the southern Italian regions, where, because of climate conditions,
agriculture depends on irrigation. At the national level, irrigation has led to considerable
improvements in productive techniques, lengthening production periods and promoting
product standardisation, contributing to food stabilisation. ater availability constitutes, in
fact, an important factor of competitiveness because irrigation increases the ability of
farmers to be on the market and this encourages higher qualitative standards for
productions.Furthermore, irrigation produces several environmental benefits, related in
particular to groundwater recharge; it also characterises the agricultural landscape and in
some areas it contributes to tourist and recreation countryside activities. However,
excessive water use and pollutant released from agriculture produce a negative impact on
the environment.
An insufficient water pricing system as well as a coupled agricultural policy have
been blamed for having favoured an excessive exploitation of water resources. But this
scenario is changing. CAP reform has, in fact, eliminated the prices protection net for the
great part of agricultural productions and agricultural prices are gradually being driven at
the world market level.
Therefore, farmers can receive a fully decoupled single payment and choose between
not producing, assuring maintenance operations, or continuing to produce adapting their
production to market demand. Several researches 23 assumed positive effects on water use
in consequence of the CAP reform application, related to a reduction of production in
marginal areas for a drastic re-allocation of cultivated surfaces. Nevertheless, an
interesting scientific work of Massarutto (2003) has shown that in the areas where
farmers have a good organisation and water management is efficient, this reduction of
production should not happen. In this case, the CAP reform should not be a strong
incentive to water demand reduction in consequence of irrigated areas' reduction and
conversion of farms (towards afforestation and landscape-oriented agriculture, ecological
farming) as irrigated land is normally also more productive. The most obvious candidates
towards use reduction, if any, are those areas in which both farming practices and water
efficiency are very poor because of geographic or other factors. The condition for this to
happen is more likely to occur when water is used because it is very cheap, and not
because it is very useful.

23. Whitby (1997), van Huylenbroek and Whitby (1999); Anania (2001).