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The objective of this paper is twofold: firstly, it analyzes the evolution of frauds in the Italian wine value chain over the period 2007–2015, and then, using a properly disaggregated social accounting matrix (SAM) of the Italian economy, it simulates the impact of wine frauds on the national economy in terms of growth, employment, value added and income. The wine industry is the sector most exposed to frauds within the Italian agro-food system accounting for 88% of total value of seized agro-food outputs. Most irregularities (95%) are made by only three agents, specifically individual wineries, bottlers-wholesalers and retailers. We estimated industry-specific SAM multipliers to assess the share of the Italian economy depending on irregular wine production. These activities account for 11.5% of specialized permanent crop farms output and over 25% of wine industry output. This is a sign of vulnerability of the wine industry: should a food scandal/scare determine a drop in consumers’ demand, the negative effect on production activities of these sectors may be large. The SAM was also used to perform an impact analysis adopting a counterfactual approach. Results show a slightly positive increase of value added (6 million euro) along with an overall decrease in the activity level (an output loss of 406 million euro and more than six thousand full time jobs lost). This contractionary effect can be explained with fraud rents. Indeed, the extra-profits from frauds do not activate the economy circular flow as most of them leak out to exogenous accounts such as the public administration and the rest of the world.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the sustainability of water management for agriculture in a specific territory through the creation of a synthetic index resulting from the aggregation of multiple indices (environmental, economic, and social). The resulting synthetic index can be used to set sustainability standards and to guide the choices mandated by the Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027. In this work we intend to show how the Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method facilitates a complex process such as establishing a degree of sustainability in a certain area and, therefore, provides support to national or regional policies and communities. The integration of MCDA and GIS increases the efficiency of the support activity. A case study is presented evaluating the level of sustainability in the Irrigation and Reclamation Consortium of Piacenza and Emilia Centrale, in the Emilia Romagna region.

According to European approach (art. 9 WFD 2000/60/EC), the collection of data relating to the quantification of water abstraction represents an important phase to promote efficiency in the use of water resources. Through the collection and subsequent study of the data provided, in fact, it is possible to apply a water pricing policy, based on the volumes currently used, to cope environmental sustainability and agricultural resilience to climate change, in a context of water scarcity. In Italy, for agricultural sector, guidelines to collect and monitoring data are in force at national scale and detailed methodologies are applied at regional scale. A WebGIS platform called SIGRIAN (National Information System for Water Management in Agriculture (https://sigrian.crea.gov.it/sigrian/)), managed by CREA- Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bio-economy and realized in collaboration with Italian Regions, is adopted as national reference database for the collection and share of data resulting from the monitoring of water volumes for irrigation. SIGRIAN also fits in the logic of Integrated Water Management (IWRM) approach. In order to coordinate the development and management of water and related resources, this platform is setup to link itself with Google satellites and Copernicus programme in order to obtain and process satellite information and earth observation data. In addition, SIGRIAN website (https://sigrian.crea.gov.it/index.php/cosesigrian/) provides an OPEN DATA section, ( in this section is possible to use a WMS (Web Map Service) Enquiry service and a WFS (Web Feature Service) Service, both related to the borders of authorities irrigation. All data collected and monitored in this system are useful to support planning, programming and management processes of policy making and enforcement, such as CAP common indicators, water pricing based on water uses, monitoring and evaluation of investment programs, support economic analysis for Agricultural sector in the context of the Water framework directive.Otherwise, SIGRIAN data can be useful to support the definition and application of Sustainability standards related to water use in agriculture through defining reference parameters for territories that uses water for irrigation in a sustainable way and in a multidisciplinary approach.Keyword: SIGRIAN, irrigation volumes, sustainability standards, open data, monitoring, resilience.

In agronomy, using water in a sustainable way means producing without waste and without having a negative impact on the environment. A sustainability indicator is the crop water use efficiency. From an economic point of view sustainability is the ability to continue extracting net positive social returns from a resource for an indefinite period of time. This chapter describes the ways to measure efficiency of crops in using water for growing and producing, and discusses the cost of final yield in terms of water requirements. Water use efficiency of the cultivated species, the mechanisms that influence the water-use efficiency at the farm scale and strategies for improving water efficiency have also been discussed. Economic efficiency and sustainability, and the policy instruments to reach an efficient and sustainable water management have also been discussed in this chapter.

SIGRIAN (National Information System for Agriculture Water Management) is a web GIS platform developed and managed by the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Centre for Politics and Bio economics (CREA-PB). This GEOdatabase is operating since 1998 and recently it has been established by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture (MIPAAF) as the reference repository for the irrigation data collection at national scale. SIGRIAN collects both geographical information concerning the hydraulic network schemes of the national water boards (Consortia and Water Associations) and information technically and economically related to the management of water resources in agriculture. SIGRIAN will be used as database for economic evaluations to address policy related to water resources in agriculture and to support the assessment of optimal water resource allocation.

Water sustainability in agriculture is the main topic of this review. However, moving from studies carried out at worldwide level, the main focus of the paper is the Mediterranean farm which practices irrigated and/or rainfed cropping systems. On the basis of the state of the art on this matter, a lack of knowledge in some areas has come to light that calls for new policies and further research. Basically, the review provides feasible agro-technical solutions for using water in the most efficient and productive way. Alternative ways to use water resources rationally in growing crops are discussed. They are based mainly on progress due to agronomy (No-Till Conservation Agriculture), information technology (Decision Support System and Precision Irrigation) and genetics. Agronomic options are analysed taking into account recent European agricultural and environmental trends of policies which conjugate the issues related to sustainability and production intensification. In perspective, the review encourages discussion on how to relocate farming systems within natural cycles, specifically those of the water cycle, based on No-Till Conservation Agriculture principles and practices which apply to all land-based agro-ecologies in all continents where agriculture is practiced.

Water is considered the most critical resource for sustainable agricultural development worldwide. Water scarcity has become an issue, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. There is the need to develop efficient management options to reduce water consumption and waste. In order to measure irrigated crop technical efficiency, a stochastic frontier production method – in which the inefficiency component is heteroscedastic – is used with the aim to assess what crop type and production technique revealed highest efficiency. The model is applied to a case study in southern Italy by using 2016 data from the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network. Our results show that the assumption of heteroscedasticity in the one-sided error term in the stochastic frontier is valid: individual farms’ characteristics critically influence technical efficiency. Processing tomato is the most efficient crop production system; organic farms tend to have a lower level of technical efficiency compared to conventional farms; and fertigation system is found to increase the level of technical efficiency.

A recent work carried out by CREA (ex INEA) compared spatial analysis of the main problems concerning the use of water resources for irrigation in Italian River basin districts (RBD) with the policy measures for water resources and agriculture, in order to verify the relevance of planning to address specific regional sensitivities. The bases for the policy analysis was River basin management plans (RBMPs), in updating, and proposal of Regulation for rural development, not yet approved at the time. The spatial and statistical analysis was done, for each Italian RBD, through cluster analysis method using specific indicators, calculated using quantifiable and comparable public database (ISTAT, ISPRA, SIGRIAN) and representing qualitative and quantitative pressures on waters and environmental constraint. The aim of this work is the updating of spatial analysis, with reference to recently approved RBMPs and new regional RDPs 2014-2020, based on the Regulation for rural development 1305/2013. The update of the work involves the use of additional indicators through the analysis of new data made available by the updating of RBMPs such as, for example, the qualitative and quantitative status of water bodies. Moreover, it is now possible to know the real measures put in place by each RDP, instead of possible measures to activate, and so to verify the real match between policies. Finally, the cluster analysis was conducted at national level instead of at RBD level, so that the magnitude of indicators is the same for all RBD and, then, comparable. The preliminary results of the updating, show a different variability of clusters trough national territory, with lower variability in Central and Southern Italy and higher variability in Northern Italy.