Deliverable 7. A compilation of water use for protected cultivation in the Mediterranean, water resources and economics of storing and upgrading water (IMAG)

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Work package 3 deals with means to ensure that irrigation water of the lowest possible quality is used, within the constraints of an economic management of the farm. In fact, a grower must take “optimal” decisions about water management, within three time-horizons: 

1.        Long-term (strategic), that is to choose the fitting of his farm (such as rain collection; desalinisation, disinfecting), in view of local conditions;

2.        Medium-term (one year: tactic), that is to select the cropping plan in view of the fitting of the farm and of the available water;

3.        Daily management (operational), that is to select which (of possibly many) water sources to use to re-fill the irrigation tank.

In all cases, a cost-benefit analysis must be performed, accounting for: the quality, quantity and price of water; the cost of improving quality on-site and the costs (in term of yield loss) of applying water of poor quality.

This deliverable is meant to collect the information needed to determine cost-benefit of possible investments at farm level, such as rain harvesting, re-use of drain water, use of agricultural waste water, reverse-osmosis, disposal of residuals. In order to collect this information in a structured way, partners were asked to fill a questionnaire developed for this purpose.