Safe drinking water is vital for human health. Diffuse pollution of nitrogen and pesticides from agriculture is the main obstacle to meet drinking water quality targets.
The objective of FAIRWAY is
- to review approaches for protection of drinking water resources against pollution by pesticides and nitrate, and
- to identify and further develop innovative measures and governance approaches for a more effective drinking water protection.
EIP-AGRI workshop
A workshop connecting innovative projects: Water & Agriculture was held in Almerialn, Spain on 30-31 May 2018.
See: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/event/eip-agri-workshop-connecting-innovative-projects
It was organised by the European Commission Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development and the EIP-AGRI Service Point with support of the Andalusian Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development and the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Environment.
The EIP-AGRI network aims to promote cross-border knowledge exchange, networking and continuous cooperation between Operational Groups. This workshop aimed to bring these Operational Groups together, provide the possibility to exchange views, experiences and establish new partnerships with others and with research and other types of projects working on water-related innovation in agriculture. The FAIRWAY project was invited to participate and Marina Pintar (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) joined the workshop on its behalf.
The Workshops objectives were as follows:
- Connect Operational Groups with each other and to relevant research/innovation activities
- Exchange good practices
- Identify common challenges and explore potential solutions
- Promote continuous cooperation beyond the workshop
Discussion in group C was on the multi actor approach, which is one of the main issues in FAIRWAY as well. There was an opportunity for in-depth discussion in smaller groups on topics proposed by the workshop participants and the topic "integration of scientific results to policy" was proposed by the FAIRWAY representative.
FAIRWAY decision support tool workshop
On 17 April 2018, WP5 held a successful workshop at ADAS in Boxworth, UK. The objective was to demonstrate and discuss some of the decision support tools (DSTs) being applied in Europe to help farmers/policy makers/water companies promote good practices for reducing nitrate and pesticide pollution of surface water and groundwater. The following DSTs where presented:
- FARMSCOPER, Wateraware, Slugaware and Check it out (UK)
- Mark Online, Crop Protection Online, Farm Tracking, Kemitjek and Target Econ N (DK)
- Catchment Lake Modelling network (NO)
- Düngeplanung (DE)
- Environmental Yardstick for pesticides (NL)
- SIRIS (FR)
- FITO-INFO (SL)
Some of these DSTs will be demonstrated and/or tested in the FAIRWAY case study sites.
FAIRWAY workshop event in Brussels, December 2017
On 6 December 2017, a workshop on "Identifying barriers and issues in integrating scientific support for EU policy by actors at EU level" was held in Brussels. The event was organised and led by Fairway partner University of Ljubljana and its team members. Participants, representing different stakeholder groups (for example European commission’s representatives, water company representatives, researchers etc.) discussed together in small groups.
The workshop was based on a modified World café method, were participants tackled and discussed four main questions:
- What do you consider to be the main issues on the EU level related to drinking water resource protection against diffuse pollution of nitrates and pesticides from agriculture in EU? ;
- What do you consider to be the main barriers in solving the issues in the EU regulations related to drinking water resource protection against diffuse pollution of nitrates and pesticides from agriculture in EU?;
- In your opinion how the relationship between science and policy in the EU regulations is reflected in EU legislation, with special attention to drinking water resource protection against diffuse pollution of nitrates and pesticides from agriculture?;
- In your opinion how the system at EU level can be improved, i.e. what are the possible solutions for integrated scientific support for EU policy related to drinking water resource protection against diffuse pollution of nitrates and pesticides from agriculture?
As part of the work in Work Package 7, workshop results, together with data collected from individual interviews will be used for an evaluation report on barriers and issues in providing integrated scientific support for EU policy.
