Water Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Spain | Participatory Water Governance – A New Model for Regional CAP Implementation?

October 10, 2025 Irene Perez

In a time of environmental regulation backsliding in agriculture, how can grassroots, participatory processes enable farmers, environmentalists, and other local stakeholders to effectively shape policy? Here, we dig deeper into a case study: the Social Water Roundtable of Andalusia (MSA), which works to shape regional water governance in agriculture through multi-stakeholder dialogue. Report by Irene Perez. […]

Rural Resilience | Water, Diversification and Agroecology – Part 3

February 29, 2024 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

The issue of water shortages underscores the urgent need to make a success of agroecological transition. It is the dominant agricultural model that must change. Comparing the state of play in Germany and France, this is the final installment of a three-part policy analysis for the Rural Resilience project by Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne. […]

Rural Resilience | Water, Diversification and Agroecology – Part 2

February 28, 2024 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

Agroecology favours the resilience of agricultural systems. Yet it is being embraced to varying extents by France, Germany and other Member States. Sustainable water management at territorial level is key, as shown by this comparison of approaches in France and Germany. Second in a three-part policy analysis for the Rural Resilience project by Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne. […]

Rural Resilience | Water, Diversification and Agroecology – Part 1

February 27, 2024 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

New Genomic Techniques do not hold water. Their false promise is inconsistent with territorial and sustainable water management, finds this policy analysis by Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne for the Rural Resilience project. First in a three-part series on the topic of water, diversification and agroecology. […]

Water as a Common Good .. and climate risks, a common destiny – Part 2/2

October 23, 2023 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

In this second part article we look at the resilience of agricultural insurance systems, a function fulfilled by public (France, Spain) or private (Germany) reinsurance, in relation to water scarcity and drought. […]

Water as a Common Good – Part 1

October 16, 2023 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

Blue gold: water is one of the most precious resources for agriculture and for life. In part one of this analysis, Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne looks at the difficult transition from acceptance of risk to transfer of climate risks (beginning with drought) to insurance companies – developments which spotlight inequalities in the circumstances of farmers across Europe. […]

Rural Resilience | Diary from the Ground – Summer 2023

September 1, 2023 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

In phase 2 of the Rural Resilience project we pledged to explore new territories. Over the summer, we set out in search of experiments in resilience in the four corners of France. Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne reports. […]

France – Pesticides, Mega-Basins and Who Gets to do What

April 13, 2023 Ashley Parsons

The French retirement age isn’t the only debate making waves in the land of fraternity and croissants right now. One-third of French drinking water turns out to be contaminated thanks to a banned pesticide, which is unsettling news. So shouldn’t it be about time to retire some pesticides? This and the emergence of water-grabbing make up this this week’s round-up, French edition. Dive in with Ashley Parsons […]

Rural Realities | Feet on the Ground in the Battle for Land

October 10, 2022 ARC

Access to land was the topic of a panel discussion at our rural resilience gathering in north-west France last week. To add to the conversation, we present our findings from research on the ground, over the past two years of the “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” project. In the first of a series on hot topics around transition, we look at land, water and soil – all pivotal issues for socio-ecological transition. Analysis by “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” team. […]

UK | Pond Life Revives Hope for On-Farm Wildlife

May 27, 2021 Ursula Billington

Pond restoration yields dramatic results for nature. Seedbanks, dormant for 150 years, spring back to life; rare indigenous plants return within months. Invertebrate populations explode, significant for severely declining freshwater biodiversity. Insect chimneys attract huge numbers of birdlife and twice the species normally seen in the area. Ursula Billington reports on a farmer-inspired project to restore pondlife in Norfolk, UK. […]

Swiss Study Backs Water Clean-Up

July 27, 2020 Peter Crosskey

As part of Switzerland’s groundwork for its Clean Drinking Water Initiative, the Swiss federal government’s food and environmental agency Agroscope has completed a second, detailed study on the environmental impact the clean drinking water initiative can achieve. Peter Crosskey found that Agroscope’s preliminary findings suggest that while the country could indeed reduce pesticide levels in its drinking water, the gains would be eroded by the current carbon footprint of imported foods. […]

Letter From The Farm | Welcome to Western Macedonia

June 22, 2020 Nikos Tsioumplekas

Meet Nikos Tsioumplekas, a budding farmer who is reviving the family farm in Western Macedonia in the North of Greece. So far he has restored his great-grandfather’s orchards and planted a vegetable garden. Inspired by Greek tradition and best practices from all over the world, Nikos is determined to realise his farming vision. […]

Why Language Matters To Shape The Future Of Agriculture

June 15, 2020 Ans Rossy

Why don’t we talk about doing good instead of doing less harm? Because we are facing a crisis of imagination, writes Ans Rossy. To move away from our society’s current paradigm of power and influence, we will need inspiring new narratives. Agroecology can help us envision a future that’s about sharing and cooperation. […]

Shifting Subsidies in Switzerland – the Clean Drinking Water Initiative.

January 12, 2020 Klaus Lanz

Switzerland is well known for holding referendums. A new one that’s coming up asks for a change in subsides to farmers, towards supporting more ecological priorities. If the Clean Drinking Water Initiative passes, payments will go to farmers who don’t use pesticides or antibiotics, and who carry lower livestock numbers on their farms. Klaus Lans has more. […]

Czech Republic | “No Forests, No Water, No Future” – Part I: Bugs in the Ecosystem

July 1, 2019 Louise Kelleher

Record droughts across Europe have been compounded in the Czech Republic by a plague of bark beetle that has jeopardized the nation’s forests. In a country where forestry and farming go hand in hand, every tree lost is a blow to the land, scuppering the soil’s capacity to store water and leaving it more vulnerable to erosion. To make matters worse, the vast fields of rapeseed that have become ubiquitous to Czech agriculture in recent years thanks to generous EU subsidies for biofuels have left the topsoil in a sorry state. […]