The sustainability of irrigated agricultural systems under the Water Framework Directive: first results

The paper reports the first results of the EU funded Project WADI (Sustainability of European Irrigated Agriculture under Water Directive and Agenda 2000). The objective of the WADI project is to evaluate the economic, social and environmental sustainability of European irrigated farming under different scenarios concerning water policy and the Common Agricultural Policy. The methodology relies on scenario analysis combined to farm level mathematical programming models. According to the first results, the impact of the directive, up to reasonable prices, may be summed up in a minor reduction of water use, connected to a sharp decrease of farm income and a significant reduction of employment.