Adopting irrigation advisory services for water footprint estimation to improving biodiversity conservation: a European survey

Abstract

In many European regions the Irrigation Advisory Services (IASs) are adopted by farmers for sustainable irrigation practices. These tools are adequate to facilitate the adoption of environmental certification schemes, such as water footprint, which could improve the sustainability of production processes. As part of a survey conducted on 116 farmers among Italy, Greece and Croatia, it was possible to understand their level of awareness with respect to the certification systems in order to evaluate possible actions to be taken to increase awareness of their use. The results showed that farmers still have a certain unawareness with respect to the true added value, in economic terms.