The 8th meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the CIHEAM: Water scarcity the key challenge for Mediterranean farmers

The availability of water is the key issue for farmers in the Mediterranean as a result of climate change, Agriculture Ministers from 13 Mediterranean countries have heard.

A Spanish EU Presidency press release said that at the 8th meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), held in Istanbul, Spain's Minister of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, Elena Espinosa, highlighted the importance of implementing policies that encourage the agricultural sector to adapt to climate change.

The Minister said water availability was one of the major consequences of climate change for the agriculture of Mediterranean countries and pointed out that water was an essential element for improving food safety, for increasing crop productivity and for promoting the economic development of rural areas. 
 


She added that saving water would not be enough and that reusing waste water and using desalination when possible would be needed; she went on to stress the need to continue exploring new ways of obtaining these resources using as little energy as possible in order to reduce their cost and their environmental consequences.

Discussions at the meeting focused on ‘The effects of climate change on food security and food safety in the Mediterranean Region and actions to be taken'.

A CIHEAM press release issued ahead of the meeting said that, "Since all regional climate models agree in considering the Mediterranean region as one of the potentially most severely affected by climate change in the world, attempts to assess the future of Mediterranean food production must consider the complex interaction of factors determining the use of land and water resources, the choice of most suited crops and their interactions with social dynamics."

Founded in 1962, CIHEAM is an intergovernmental organisation comprising 13 member countries from the Mediterranean Basin (Albania, Algeria, Egypt, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Turkey).

The CIHEAM Ministerial Meetings were established in 1999, in order to create a dialogue between Mediterranean countries on agricultural and rural issues and promote a common approach to these issues. The meetings, which are now held biannually, bring together ministers from CIHEAM's 13 member countries' with representatives of its international partner institutions, including among others the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank.

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• Spanish Presidency press release   
• CIHEAM press release   
• CIHEAM website