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The director of the Federal Bureau of Agriculture expects expenditure on irrigation systems to quadruple within ten years. According to Hofer, the federal government recently invested two to three million francs a year in the systems — which would also include contributions from the cantons and farms. So far, the federal government, the cantons and the companies each share a third of the costs.
Hofer called the consequences of climate change worrying. There is no alternative to water for food security. “You can’t say that, because we don’t have enough water, agriculture has to make do with something else,” says the agricultural director.
In addition to irrigation, Hofer saw solutions in soil cultivation to reduce water evaporation. According to him, more winter crops should also be grown. Winter wheat, for example, benefits from precipitation in the winter.
“Moreover, we have to store more water,” says the BLW director. It is not easy. In Switzerland there are no large areas for holding basins. “Overarching water management is needed to prevent usage conflicts,” he said.
According to Swiss researchers, data on water use in agriculture are heterogeneous and incomplete. So far, data on irrigation has been recorded by canton and not by water body, as researchers from the University of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences found in a recently published study.
(SDA)
Source:Blick
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