Water Stewardship Seminar

Seville, Spain, 1-2 April 2014

A sustainable water supply is vital for agriculture which accounts for

90% of water use. The gap between projected use and sustainable

supply is 40%. How successful are water management projects and

what can food and drink companies do to reduce water use in their

supply chains? SAI Platform arranged a water stewardship seminar in

Seville to find out more.

Nearly 60 people from the food and drink industry, NGOs and academia, met in Seville on 1

and 2 April to discuss improving water stewardship in agriculture. The seminar was

organised by SAI Platform, the global initiative helping food and drink companies achieve

sustainable agriculture practices. The event follows the publication the Water Stewardship

in Sustainable Agriculture Report in 2013.

What the experts say: Chris Briggs, Secretary General, Ramsar Convention, explained about the importance of wetlands

and why agriculture needs healthy wetlands. Click here to read his presentation on Specific challenges related to water and agriculture in the world.

M. Ramón Llamas, Professor Emeritus, Complutense University of Madrid, reviewed the research conducted on water management in Spain. Read his findings here: Water footprint and management in the Guadalquivir river basin.

Eva Hernández, WWF, looked at the impact and challenges for irrigation. How much investment is needed to achieve water savings? Click here to find out: Water and agriculture in the region; challenges and opportunities.

Ernesto Brovelli,

President of SAI

Platform, posed the

question ‘How do we

operationalise everything

we learn about water?’

stewardship and use it in

our business?

What is the role of water authorities?

Guadalquivir River Basin Authority visit

The seminar included a visit to the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority, founded in 1927 and in charge

of the whole hydrological cycle of the most southerly of the European great basins. The authority

has a good knowledge of the water situation, and uses high levels tools to predict, estimate and

regulate water levels. A specialist tool is responsible for the public waterworks and the distribution

of water resources. A monitoring network, SAIH, collects and transmits data from 221 control panels

in the basin, and is especially useful in flood events.

However, the group identified a strong disconnect between the river water basin authority and the

agricultural department as neither appear responsible for the link between water and sustainable

agriculture, and illegal water withdrawing for agricultural purposes doesn’t seem very controlled.

How does irrigation help in farms?

Seville was chosen because it is a water stressed area. Several projects are already underway to

reduce water use and the group visited projects to see for themselves the benefits and challenges.

Strawberries field visit (organised by innocent):

Innocent is working to help their strawberry farmers adapt to reducing water availability in southern

Spain. This is the third season of the project, which started with data collection and has now moved

on to farmer workshops about saving water. The group visited a strawberry field near Almonte

where innocent is working with partners to trial more efficient, short-pulse irrigation equipment. It is

early days but the experiment is showing great results and innocent is actively trying to find a

solution that is scalable. Multiple partners are collaborating – innocent, the Coca-Cola Foundation,

The University of Cordoba, a processing partner and the farmer.

Rice field and beef farm visit (organised by Herba and OSI Solutions):

Participants first visited a 2,000 ha rice field belonging to Herba Ricemills on the left bank of the

Guadalquivir river. The farm is so big that seeding and pesticide spreading is done by plane.

Irrigation is peculiar due to soil and water salinity: there is constant flooding and constant water

circulation. Out of all water pumped from river, 50% returns to the river to avoid salinization.

A second farm visit was organised by OSI Solutions. The farm, over 2.500 ha, combines several

activities: beef, olive trees, and wild game. A rustic beef breed, Retinta, is grown due to its strong

links with the Andalusian landscape and resistance to extreme weather conditions, in combination

with Limousine and Charolais. Meat from Retinta stands out for its strong beef flavour, delivered by

its open-range rearing and natural feeding resources. Only part of the olive production is irrigated,

which produces 120 kg of olives/ha as compared to 40 kg/ha for non-irrigated trees.

What is important at farm level?

Day 2 presentations focused on water management at farm level and regional level:

Emeline Fellus, Deputy Manager, SAI Platform, summarized the findings from Day 1

Francesc Ferrer, LabFerrer: Water management at farm level

Maite Aldaya, Complutense University of Madrid: Water footprint and water footprint methodologies applied to Spain

Following the presentations, the group divided into sub groups to discuss three topics.

1. Technological: What works and what doesn’t work at farm level

A lot of technology is available, but not applied on a wide scale. A key question is: what is in for

farmers? What has a chance to be applied on a wide scale must: be adapted to local needs and

conditions; make sense to farmers; high tech attract younger growers; be supported by other food

chain stakeholders (eg contracts) as well as extensionists/agronomists/agrologists.

A challenge is to provide connectivity between crops (farm approach versus crop approach), growers

(via shared technology and communication systems) and other actors (for support/assistance).

2. How to get farmers interested in water management?

Important aspects to consider in order to get farmers interested in water management include:

- simplify the overall message and talk farmers’ language (focus on economics);

- demonstrate economic benefits: cost reduction/value creation; market access; premium; yield

increase; risk reduction/long-term contracts;

- network of champions as people learn more from peers, and/or trusted advisors;

- access to resources;

- link with other key stakeholders: academia; extensionists including input providers; banks;

- pride/stronger and better connection to brands who use the agricultural raw material.

3. How to get companies interested water management?

The essence for companies is to try to reduce the risk of supply disruption. This require co-operation

across several groups:

- Between companies and Governments: companies can invest at farm level and show best practice

(front runners) while minimum thresholds are set by Governmental regulation (tackling laggards);

- Between companies and farmers: companies launch programmes with farmers and other partners;

- Between various companies – which is what SAI Platform helps to do. Other stakeholder groups also

need to be associated, such as retailers.

Day 2 presentations on Water Stewardship and stakeholder engagement:

Volker Laabs, EWS expert shared EWP’s perspectives on Water stewardship in sustainable agriculture: beyond the farm towards catchment approach

Carlo Galli, Nestle, shared the findings of a project

‘Vietnam to produce more coffee with less water.’ This project

involved a wide range of stakeholders through local, provincial

and national workshops - aimed at reaching up to 50,000

farmers in an effort to reduce water use at farm level and

hereby protecting the watersheds. See the pilot video.

How to translate learnings in action:

Following the presentations, the group divided into sub groups to discuss three topics.

1. Building the business case for water and agriculture for companies

Companies simply cannot afford not to manage water if it means losing their supply of raw

materials. The business case for investing in water management is thus linked to risk management

and cost avoidance – as staying in an area is easier and cheaper than moving to a new one. An action

item for SAI Platform would be to create maps about water risks (see sub group number 2), and

ideally overlay them with other risks such as biodiversity etc.

An important step is to build the right connections between organisations to generate synergies.

2. Improving SAI Platform-SFL Lab project proposal for joint water risk and mitigation

Participants reiterated the importance of the proposed project to share risk assessments and to

develop joint mitigation actions in areas identified as hotspots. It was proposed to start with a lower

level of financial requirement so more companies could join, regardless of the exact hotspots that

will be chosen for mitigation action. Several sourcing regions could be identified, where

collaboration could take place with leadership of various companies depending on how key each

area is to their supply. The project proposal was revised to reflect these suggestions.

3. Developing a solution for Huelva through a multi-stakeholder partnership

A new group, comprising of SAI Platform, WWF, Ramsar Convention and four companies (Unilever,

innocent, Nestle and SVZ) agreed to look at water management in the Huelva region. They also plan

to include retailers interested in this region. The focus will be on the berries crops in Donana, looking

at three areas: illegal water use; scaling best practice; existing projects in the region.

SAI Platform has a Water Committee working to ensure the positive use and

protection of water in agriculture. During 2014, the Committee will work on a

project to share risk assessments and develop joint mitigation actions, the

development of a good, practical indicator for watershed managements and

the assessment of animal feed water footprint.

For more information about SAI Platform, visit

saiplatform.org, Twitter: @SAIPlatform or email

info@saiplatform.org.