Progress report for
PNRR – Investments in the resilience of the irrigation agro system for better management of water resources
Achievement at a glance
At December 2023, 97 projects for the improving of collective irrigation networks have been financed for EUR 880 million.Among them, 42 projects were selected according to a new call for funding in 2021 for about EUR 520 million.
Other 55 projects, already financed with other national funds (for about EUR 360 million) were included in the timeline of the measure because of their coherence with the aim and timing of the NRRP measure.
For all these projects, the tenders for the realization of the works have been concluded in November 2023 and the realization has started.
Challenges faced in implementation
The increase in prices linked to the post-pandemic economic imbalance, as well as the economic and energy crisis linked to the conflict in Ukraine, triggered a continuous and constant increase in inflation that also affected the public procurement sector.In order to cope with the higher costs of the interventions deriving from the updating of price lists used in the procedures for the awarding of public works contracts, the Italian Ministry of the Economy created a special fund (Fund for Non-Deferrable Works) to allow the awarding of the interventions financed by 31 December 2023 and the achievement of the targets set for the Measure.
Next Steps
Francesca ConiglioBeneficiaries
The Beneficiaries of the measure are Irrigation boards. They are associations of users (farmers) that ensure withdrawal from water bodies, water supply (through the building and maintenance of irrigation networks) and define water supplying procedures to users.
With the 2021 call for funding, 25 new beneficiaries (for 42 projects) have been selected, while 42 beneficiaries are in charge for (55) coherent projects.
Actions
The measure aimed at increasing the efficiency of irrigation infrastructures through the development of innovative and digitized infrastructure for a more sustainable agriculture, better adapted to climate change. The measure provided for funding the modernization and digitalisation of existing irrigation networks, rather than creating new ones.To achieve these objectives, infrastructural interventions have been financed on the irrigation networks and systems and their digitalisation and monitoring systems consisting of:
• the shift from canals to pressurized networks;
• the modernization of distribution networks in order to reduce losses;
• the building of new collective irrigation networks on areas already irrigated in self-supply;
• the digitisation of the irrigation service for greater efficiency in water use, such as the installation of meters for measuring the water withdrawn and distributed along the network and to the end user, and remote control systems for automatic and remote management of the distribution network itself.
The planning of these investments was aimed at the sustainability and competitiveness of the agricultural sector, with attention to environmental issues.
The water saving achieved by the interventions was the contact point between productivity and sustainability.
This because:
- for the same withdrawal, reducing network losses allows more water to reach the field, ensuring greater availability for crops.
- With the same needs in the field, by making the network more efficient there is a lower withdrawal and impact on the waterbodies, favouring availability for other uses and also for maintaining flow rates in the waterbody.
That’s why, this investments in public infrastructure on water distribution networks, by promoting increasingly efficient use of water , allow for greater and more constant availability of water for irrigation, thus helping to increase the resilience to climate change.