Agriculture plays a crucial role in people's lives. It is vital to all humans no matter the nationality, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and so on. Even though people depend on agriculture to survive, they often forget that in order to provide sufficient crop and animal production, we need to make sure that our ways of farming are sustainable and enable us to farm in the long-term future. In the same spirit, people have to make sure to adapt to climate changes in order to keep the quality and number of production. The current research proves the climate changes which we currently experience, especially droughts. WWF states that in Europe, longer and more intense periods of droughts and periods without precipitation are more and more often every year causing prolonged shortages in the water supply. Such shortages then result in drying of crops, reduce soil quality, bring new pests, rodents and diseases and moreover, they create shortages of water for farm animals like cattle. The negative consequences are serious but one may ask: is that even possible to adapt to such drastic changes like lack of water? Yes, it is. However, the adaptation process needs preparations, one has to consider his or her possibilities, close environment, soil characteristics, legal options and context. To help farmers and landowners start, implement and sustainably maintain new water systems or other adaptation ways to droughts on one's farm, this project is proposed. The project AGRIWATER aims to educate farmers, landowners as well as other stakeholders in possible ways how to adapt on climate change and droughts innovatively and sustainably and how to establish, implement and take care of water systems on agricultural land as an effective way of reducing consequences of droughts. The idea of implementing new water systems supports the long-term sustainable solutions and continuous processes of adaptation on climate change. The main goal of the project is to help farmers maintain their agricultural lands by implementing innovative adaptation measures to droughts. Similarly, the project aims at landowners in order to raise awareness amongst them why it is necessary to take care of their lands and not just rent it recklessly. The project is, thus, divided into 5 main outputs which are The Current Situation Summary Report; The Collection of Best Practices Examples; The Innovative Educational Materials; The Awareness Raising Publication and finally, The Web-based Educational Platform. By delivering these outputs we aim to create a comprehensive educational system for a broad audience focusing on a topic which is, in an area of life-long education, still rather neglected. The project consortium consists of partners from the Czech Republic (leading partner the Association of Private Farming of the Czech Republic), Belgium (European Landowners), Cyprus (Agricultural Research Institute), Germany (Hof und Leben), Italy (University of Florence) and Spain (On Project Consulting), creating a broad mix of countries from Central, Southen and Eastern European countries. The main reason for implementing this project transnationally is because it could help achieve the goals of the EU 2050 long-term strategy and EU Adaptation Strategy prepared by the European Commission and following the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement. We aim to improve the quality of agricultural soil, its characteristics and possibilities to keep water (groundwater as well as aboveground water systems). Carrying out the project transnationally has a wide range of benefits for all participants and target groups as it contributes to the exchange of good practices among farmers, landowners and experts in the field in different countries. But above all, it could help real people with their farming. The deliverables of AGRIWATER project are expected to be actively used after the project ends thanks to the involvement of an umbrella organization for agricultural associations from the whole of Europe, active cooperation with other relevant associations, action groups, research institutes and educational institutions and direct reach to farmers in all partner countries.
The project AGRIWATER aimed to educate farmers, landowners as well as other stakeholders in possible ways how to adapt to climate change and droughts innovatively and sustainably and how to establish, implement and take care of water systems on agricultural land as an effective way of fighting severe consequences of drought. The idea of implementing new water systems supports long-term sustainable solutions and continuous processes of adaptation to climate change. The creation of an open digital training platform including complex educational and rising awareness materials, followed by interactive elements and visual materials was chosen as the main tool with the highest possible reach and usability for farmers and the overall selected target group of the AGRIWATER project. The project consortium from the very beginning agreed on the need of - helping farmers to find solutions adequate to their scale and scope; - to acquire knowledge and become familiar with current water management practices in Europe; - to create connections between European organizations dealing with this topic for possible further cooperation in the following activities.
The need to address climate change and to adapt to extreme forms of weather are well known. There has been a lot of academic researches explaining what are the consequences of droughts on the landscape, how does lack of rainfalls affect agriculture and why it is necessary to implement new strategies to adapt to such changes. However, not much researches was done among actual farmers and landowners who are in close touch with the land, who live and farm on it. ASZ ČR realized an initial survey in 2020 among its members in which participated 230 respondents. Based on the results, the need for addressing the drought-management issue and need to find innovative adaptation strategies is more than visible. 96,5% of respondents experience problems resulting from droughts and lack of rainfall. Over half of the participants think that they do not have enough information about ways and possibilities on how to establish water systems and how to maintain them sustainably. The AGRIWATER project has contributed to overcoming this gap by creating a quality open education system with various educational and rising awareness materials and introducing them to farmers and stakeholders across Europe and beyond.