The MEDWATERICE project: objectives and expected impacts

The MEDWATERICE project (https://www.medwaterice.org/), started in April 2019, explores the sustainability of innovative water-saving irrigation strategies to reduce rice water consumption and environmental impacts, and to extend rice cultivation outside of traditional paddy areas to satisfy the increasing rice demand in Mediterranean countries. Innovative irrigation methods and technologies were implemented in experimental pilot farms of each country involved in the project (EG, IT, TR, ES, PT; Work Package 2). Tested water-saving irrigation methods were tailored to local conditions using a participatory action research approach through the establishment of Stake-Holder Panels (SHPs). For each irrigation solution, innovative technologies and the most appropriate rice varieties and agronomic practices were implemented to minimize impacts on yield quantity and quality. Experimental activities were conducted in the pilot farms for at least two agricultural seasons in the period 2019-2021. A dataset including agro-climatic data, soil physic-chemical properties, groundwater depth and salinity, irrigation water inflow and outflow, irrigation water salinity, grain yield and quality was produced in all Case Studies (CSs) and stored in a common FAIR and OpenAIRE compliant repository (https://dataverse.UMIL.it/). For some CSs, also GHGs emissions and nutrient and pesticides losses in surface waters and groundwater were measured. Datasets were used to assess water saving, yield and product safety and other environmental impacts for the wet seeding and continuous flooding (WFL, considered as the ‘reference’ irrigation in all CSs) and for the alternative irrigation solutions implemented, which are: alternate wetting and drying (AWD); dry seeding and delayed flooding (DFL), reduction in irrigation inflow/outflow (WIR), hybrid irrigation (HYBRID), multi-nozzle sprinkler irrigation (SPRINKLER), surface drip irrigation (DRIP), and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI). Moreover, the reuse of agricultural water drainage and waste water civil effluents, as well as the implementation of automated gates for optimising irrigation management in case of continuous flooding, were tested in specific experiments. A set of indicators for the quantitative assessment of the environmental and economic sustainability of the irrigation options were defined and applied to the datasets collected in the agricultural seasons 2019-2021. In addition, the social acceptability of the proposed water saving techniques was investigated through the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) through questionnaires compiled by rice growers of the pilot areas, to explore barriers to the adoption and identify solutions to overcome them (Work Package 5). A particular focus is dedicated to the Egyptian situation, where rice is the second staple food after wheat (Work Package 4). Results achieved at the pilot farm scale are being extrapolated to the irrigation district level through agro-hydrological models of different complexity (heuristic, conceptual, physically-based), to support water management decisions and policies (Work Package 3). Results of the project are being disseminated through different channels (Work Package 6).