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Library Lost in translation? Water efficiency in Spanish agriculture

Lost in translation? Water efficiency in Spanish agriculture

Lost in translation? Water efficiency in Spanish agriculture

Resource information

Date of publication
December 2012
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201400172041
Pages
83-95

This paper re-visits the concept of water efficiency applied to Spanish agriculture and assesses how this technical concept is sometimes lost in translation when applied at different spatial scales. The paper traces the historical dominance of irrigated agriculture in Spanish water policy. It analyses the water efficiency concept at the macro level, by evaluating recent national policy initiatives and public investment programmes over the last decade to modernise irrigation, which anticipated large water savings. “Water efficiency” is then framed in its socio-political context, by looking at debates and discussions over the past, current and future role of irrigation, key evaluation criteria and objectives for large scale irrigation modernisation plans, what are the links to water rights and allocation, benefits and beneficiaries from water savings and important unanticipated consequences and co-benefits in modernisation, and the reform of agricultural policies. Finally it identifies the central role played at national, European and global levels by agricultural (and energy) policies as key external drivers for the long term viability of modern irrigation on social, environmental and economic-productivity terms.

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Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s)

Lopez-Gunn, E.
Zorrilla, P.
Prieto, F.
Llamas, M.R.

Publisher(s)
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