Water in the EIP-AGRI spotlight

World Water Day is held every year on 22 March to highlight the importance of freshwater. This international event celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis.

Did you know that in 2022, World Water Day focuses on groundwater “Making the invisible visible”. Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere. Groundwater not only supports drinking water supplies, sanitation systems and industry, but also our farming and ecosystems. Agriculture is heavily reliant on water, requiring a steady and safe supply to ensure the health and wellbeing of crops, livestock, and all forms of life within an agricultural ecosystem. As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical, so we need to find ways to sustainably manage this precious resource. Particularly in the area of innovation we need to see urgent action in relation to groundwater.

The EIP-AGRI has done a lot of work on the topic of water in relation to agriculture and forestry. Browse the summary below.

Check out the EIP-AGRI Newsletter from March 2022 which is dedicated to water issues.

EIP-AGRI Focus Groups

EIP-AGRI Focus Groups are temporary groups of selected experts focusing on a specific subject, sharing knowledge and experience. Several of them work specifically on water, or on water-related issues, click on each link below to find reports, factsheets and more:

• Water & agriculture: adaptive strategies at farm level
• Nature-Based Solutions for water management under climate change
• Soil salinisation
• Protecting agricultural soils from contamination
• Nutrient recycling
• Circular horticulture

EIP-AGRI events

The EIP-AGRI holds workshops and seminars on specific topics. Click below to find reports, presentations and more from from the EIP-AGRI workshop related to water:

• EIP-AGRI Workshop: Connecting innovative projects: Water & Agriculture

EIP-AGRI publications

Besides the Focus Group and event reports, the EIP-AGRI Service Point produced the following relevant publications:

• EIP-AGRI Brochure Water and Agriculture (available in EN, HU, BU, PT)
• EIP-AGRI Factsheet Water & Agriculture (available in 9 languages)

EIP-AGRI Videos

Watch these videos on examples of water-related initiatives from the EIP-AGRI network:

• New ways to deal with soil salinisation in farming
• AGRI challenge: soil salinisation
• AGRI challenge: protecting soils from contamination 
• AGRI challenge: nature-based solutions for water management

Inspirational ideas from the network

Articles on examples of water-related initiatives from the EIP-AGRI network:

• Constructed wetlands for water purification (Germany)
• Enhancing water quality – changing mindsets (Ireland)
• Preventing water wastage with wireless technologies (Italy)
• Dealing with water scarcity (Italy, Spain)
• Fertile Circularity (Netherlands)
• Preserving soil organic matter and protecting water sources (Portugal)
• A nature-based approach for Mediterranean ecosystems (Portugal)
• Efficient and sustainable water use on the farm (Slovenia)
• Optimising irrigation in Spanish greenhouses (Spain)
• Making rice cultivation resistant to soil salinisation (Spain)

EU strategies/missions

• EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe
• EU Mission: Restore Oceans and Water

Multi-actor projects

• FATIMA - FArming Tools for external nutrient Inputs and water Management: website - CORDIS (03/2015-02/2018) 
• FERTINNOWA - Transfer of INNOvative techniques for sustainable WAter use in FERtigated crops: website - CORDIS (Thematic network – 01/2016-12/2018) 
• AGRIFORVALOR - Bringing added value to agriculture and forest sectors by closing the research and innovation divide to valorize and exploit sidestream biomass resources from agriculture and forestry: website - CORDIS (Thematic Network – 03/2016-08/2018) 
• AgroCycle - Sustainable techno-economic solutions for the agricultural value chain: website - CORDIS (06/2016-08/2018) 
• NoAW - Innovative approaches to turn agricultural waste into ecological and economic assets: website - CORDIS (10/2016-03/2020) 
• SolACE - Solutions for improving Agroecosystem and Crop Efficiency for water and nutrient use: website - CORDIS (05/2017-04/2022) 
• TomRes - a novel and integrated approach to increase multiple and combined stress tolerance in plants using tomato as a model: website - CORDIS (06/2017-11/2020) 
• FAirWAY - Farm systems that produce good Water quality for drinking water supplies: website - CORDIS (06/2017-05/2021) 
• WATERPROTECT - Innovative tools enabling drinking WATER PROTECTion in rural and urban environments: website - CORDIS (06/2017-05/2020) 
• Circular Agronomics - Efficient Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycling in the European Agri-food  System and related up- and down-stream processes to mitigate emissions: website - CORDIS (09/2018-08/2022) 
• Nutri2Cycle - Transition towards a more carbon and nutrient efficient agriculture in Europe: website -  CORDIS (10/2018-09/2022) 
• NUTRIMAN - Nutrient Management and Nutrient Recovery Thematic Network: website -  CORDIS (Thematic network – 10/2018-03/2021) 
• SuWaNu Europe - Network for effective knowledge transfer on safe and economic wastewater reuse in agriculture in Europe: website -  CORDIS (Thematic network – 01/2019-06/2021)  
• LEX4BIO - Optimizing Bio-based Fertilisers in Agriculture - Knowledgebase for New Policies: website -  CORDIS (06/2019-05/2023) 
• FERTIMANURE - Innovative nutrient recovery from secondary sources - Production of high-added value FERTIlisers from animal MANURE: CORDIS (01/2020 - 12/2023) 
• AQUACOMBUNE - Integrated on-farm Aquaponics systems for co-production of fish, halophyte vegetables, bioactive compounds, and bioenergy: CORDIS (10/2019 - 09/2023) 

• COASTAL Collaborative lAnd-Sea integration platform: website - CORDIS

• FOWARIM Fostering Water Agriculture Research and Innovation in Malta: CORDIS

• WATER PROTECT Innovative tools enabling WATER PROTECTion in rural and urban environments: website - CORDIS  

• SHUI Soil Hydrology research platform underpinning innovation to manage water scarcity in European and Chinese cropping systems: website - CORDIS

• OPERANDUM OPEn-air laboRAtories for Nature baseD solUtions to Manage environmental risks: website - CORDIS 

• RECONECT Regenarating ECOsystems with Nature-based solutions for hydro-meteorological risk rEduCTion: website - CORDIS 

• AquaNES DEMONSTRATING SYNERGIES IN COMBINED NATURAL AND ENGINEERED PROCESSES FOR WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS: website - CORDIS

• MERLIN, Mainstreaming Ecological Restoration of freshwater-related ecosystems in a Landscape: website - CORDIS 

• WATER2RETURN, Resource-oriented solutions for wastewater treatment based on a circular economy approach: website - CORDIS 

• EUFRUIT- EUropean FRUIT Network: CORDIS 

• IoF2020 Internet of Food and Farms 2020 , Chain Integrated Greenhouse: website - CORDIS 

• LANDMARK land management assessment research and knowledge base: website - CORDIS 

• MOSES: Managing crOp water Saving with Enterprise Services: website - CORDIS 

• RichWater (FTI) First application and market introduction of combined wastewater treatment and reuse technology for agricultural purposes: CORDIS 

More relevant multi-actor projects and thematic networks here.

Other

• EC’s dedicated webpage on Water, nutrients and waste
• UN Water
• Water and agriculture in the EU
• DG AGRI’s AgriResearch factsheet on water
• Water-topics search on the EIP-AGRI database of Operational Groups