Guido Bazzani

The definition of proper tools to support the implementation of Water Framework Directive (WFD) is an urgent task in the European Union (EU). Agriculture deserves special attention since in most countries water consumption is higher than in other sectors and pollution due to irrigated agricultural activity is often a serious problem, while social and cultural issues are relevant. The paper presents a program called DSIRR designed to conduct an integrated analysis of water use in agriculture considering agronomic, hydraulic, economic and environmental aspects as we ll as complexity and uncertainty for decision making. The tool permits to analyze in great detail the relevant production systems existing in a catchment integrating stakeholders perspectives. The impact of markets, water and agricultural policies, climate, technological innovation can be assessed and the ex-ante analysis of economic instruments, suggested by WFD for cost recovery according with polluter-pays principle, co...

The implementation of most recent CAP and water policy reforms calls for simulation analytical tools able to quantify socio-economic and environmental impacts that can be different in terms of regions and farm type. This work proposes a territorial mathematical programming model that integrates hundreds of farm models clustered in a single meta-model at regional level that can be easily standardized having the FADN as the main data source. The tool has been experimentally applied to Apulia region and several simulations have been conducted in scenarios differing in terms of agricultural policies (total decoupling, increase of the modulation rate and introduction of a flat rate system for the Single Farm Payment), price of the water resource, market conditions (price of products and cost of inputs). For each simulation, farmers’ choices - cropping patterns and techniques-, the economic assessment of the effects of such choices -revenue, costs and incomes- and environment impacts...

The implementation of most recent CAP and water policy reforms calls for simulation analytical tools able to quantify socio-economic and environmental impacts that can be different in terms of regions and farm type. This work proposes a territorial mathematical programming model that integrates hundreds of farm models clustered in a single meta-model at regional level that can be easily standardized having the FADN as the main data source. The tool has been experimentally applied to Apulia region and several simulations have been conducted in scenarios differing in terms of agricultural policies (total decoupling, increase of the modulation rate and introduction of a flat rate system for the Single Farm Payment), price of the water resource, market conditions (price of products and cost of inputs). For each simulation, farmers’ choices - cropping patterns and techniques-, the economic assessment of the effects of such choices -revenue, costs and incomes- and environment impacts...

The present paper consists of two main parts. The first one gives a picture of the more recent development of the farmland market in selected EC countries since 1985/86. Two main indicators are used to make relatively comparable the observed trends concerning: i) land mobility, ii) farmland values. The second one tries to evaluate the effects of the CAP reform and the influence of national variables overtime, taking into account the following indicators: i) mobility (on land transfers; on tenancy), ii) income (for agricultural or forest use), iii) ...

The paper presents a decision support designed to conduct an economic-environmental assessment of the agricultural activity focusing on irrigation called 'Decision Support for IRRigated Agriculture' (DSIRR). The program describes the effect at catchment scale of choices taken at micro scale by independent actors, the farmers, by simulating their decision process. The decision support (DS) has been thought of as a support tool for participatory water policies as requested by the Water Framework Directive and it aims at analyzing alternatives in production and technology, according to different market, policy and climate conditions. The tool uses data and models, provides a graphical user interface and can incorporate the decision makers' own insights. Heterogeneity in preferences is admitted since it is assumed that irrigators try to optimize personal multi-attribute utility functions, subject to a set of constraints. Consideration of agronomic and engineering aspects allows an accurate description of irrigation. Mathematical programming techniques are applied to find solutions. The program has been applied in the river Po basin (northern Italy) to analyze the impact of a pricing policy in a context of irrigation technology innovation. Water demand functions and elasticity to water price have been estimated. Results demonstrate how different areas and systems react to the same policy in quite a different way. While in the annual cropping system pricing seems effective to save the resource at the cost of impeding Water Agencies cost recovery, the same policy has an opposite effect in the perennial fruit system which shows an inelastic response to water price. The multidimensional assessment conducted clarified the trades-off among conflicting economic-social-environmental objectives, thus generating valuable information to design a more tailored mix of measures.

Water management for irrigation requires suitable policy tools able to meet social objectives and private behaviour. The legal framework in the EU is today faced with the new water framework directive (60/2000), that sets up new criteria for water management, regulation ...

The paper presents an application of the new version of the 'Decision Support for Irrigated agriculture' DSIrr designed to integrate water and agricultural policy analysis and to support participatory decision process. The tool is a scenario manager for bio-economic farm models considering climatic, agronomic, hydraulic, socio-economic and environmental aspects. The paper offers some insight on the decomposition approach adopted to integrate economic analysis at different scales by illustrating a case study conducted in Italy to support an ex ante evaluation of a water management system reorganisation. Reduce water consumption is a strategic objective which pricing policy cannot address given technical constraints. The replacement of the existing low-efficiency irrigation system could be the solution, but the recover of cost creates an affordability problem. Results suggest that a dual network, integrating agricultural and rural urban sectors, represents a real challenge f...

The objective of the paper is to evaluate the sustainability of irrigated agriculture under Water Framework Directive (60/2000) and Agenda 2000. The methodology relies on scenario analysis combined to farm level multicriteria mathematical programming. The methodology is applied to the case study of fruit farming in Northern Italy. The research shows that water pricing can improve irrigation efficiency, but the impact of water policy is strongly affected by agricultural policy scenarios. In order to make water policies more socially sound, it is necessary to consider a broader range of impacts and to provide a higher co-ordination between policy goals.

Water management for irrigation requires suitable policy tools able to meet social objectives and private behaviour. The legal framework in the EU is today faced with the new water framework directive (60/2000), that sets up new criteria for water management, regulation and pricing. Among other things, the water framework directive introduces the principle of full cost recovery and the polluter pays principle for water users. For many areas of Italy, this may be a significant shift compared to present payment criteria, based on traditional rights, political prices, partial running cost coverage or others. The aim of this paper is to analyse the problem of water regulation in agriculture as applied to irrigation issues. This is made by setting up and testing a simulation model based on the integration of a mathematical decision making model at farm level and a principal agent model at the level of irrigation boards. The model allows to quantify water demand and the optimal regulation...

The management of water resources is today one of the main issues in most countries. In Italy, as in many other European countries, irrigation is the main sector using water and hence it is at the centre of the water policy agenda. Water management for irrigation requires ...

The application of agri-environmental policies (reg. EEC 2078/92 and reg. EU 1257/99) has produced a wide literature about the best policy design options. The data arising from the first ex post evaluation exercises have contributed only partially to the discussion about ...

Guido Maria Bazzani, Vittorio Gallerani, Davide Viaggi, Meri Raggi, Fabio Bartolini* The sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Italy under water and agricultural policy scenarios 1. Introduction Italy is characterised by a variety of environmental conditions, with a prevailing Mediterranean ...