WATERWEB - Water Resource Strategies and Drought Alleviation in Western Balkan Agriculture

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WATERWEB - Water Resource Strategies and Drought
Alleviation in Western Balkan Agriculture
EU 6th Framework INCO-WB Programme
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Waterweb will aim to provide a range of tools for
strategic water management.
Over 3 years, seven partner institutions from the
EU and Western Balkans (Faculties of Agriculture,
Belgrade and Skopje and Institute Jaroslav
Cerni, Belgrade) will collaborate on research
with a budget from the EU of 1.2m (about 600k
for West Balkans).
Work will be divided into 5 Work Packages 1.
Water quantity 2. Water quality 3. Crop water
use 4. Socio-economic analysis 5. Result
dissemination
Why is the Waterweb project needed here?
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The climate here appears to be changing.
The Balkan region is getting drier
The Balkan region is getting hotter
Trends in number of tropical days (when
temperatures exceed 30C) each year in Zajecar,
southeast Serbia, have increased from around 10
days in 1970 to over 50 days in 2000.
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Wells near Belgrade are now seriously
contaminated with nutrients.
How much of this is from human waste from new
housing developments and how much from excess
fertiliser running off the fields?
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The persistence of pathogenic micro-organisms on
and within fresh vegetables can be a serious
problem with trends towards the sale of more
pre-packaged produce, particularly salads.
Some bacteria, become internalised inside crops
such as bean sprouts and lettuce with the
potential to poison large numbers of people. The
E. coli 0157 outbreak in Japan of 1996 infected
10,000 schoolchildren and several died.
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At present, around 13 of the water extracted in
Serbia is for agricultural use, irrigating crops.
Deficit irrigation techniques can save water
while also improving the economic value of the
crop.
Recent research on tomato at the Faculty of
Agriculture, Belgrade has shown that partial root
drying (PRD) can reduce water use up to 30 and
ripen fruit earlier, but has little effect on
fruit yield.
Fully watered
Partial root drying
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There is insufficient water of the necessary
purity for every user.
Basis of the water economy of the Republic of
Serbia
Tools need to be developed for strategic water
management to provide stakeholders with a range
of options from which to choose.
Serbia plans many new irrigation schemes within
the next 20 years.

• How will irrigation systems be managed in a
  market economy?
• Who pays for the maintenance?
• What price is a farmer prepared to pay for
  water?
• If crop production increases dramatically, what
  effect will it have on commodity prices?
• Will pollution levels rise if farmers increase
  fertiliser use with irrigated crops?

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a drainage canal system (Galovica) through
low-lying ground near Belgrade (A), where
animal farms cause eutrophication,
a small river basin with undulating hills
(Radmilovac) near Belgrade (B) where effects
of crop irrigation methods are being evaluated,
an arid site, Ovce Pole in Macedonia (C), whose
soils do not drain freely and where salinity
accumulates maize with PRD and a saline-tolerant
crop to be trialled here.
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Activities Each site to be surveyed
hydrologically and equipped to measure
evaporation, water flow rates (A), field runoff,
nitrogen load, to create GIS databases for
modelling.
Each year water samples from the sites to be
analysed for water quality with analyses of
organic and inorganic chemicals and microbial
contaminants to assess risks of eutrophication
and pollution.
Each year tomato, grapevine, maize, potato and
quinoa to be trialled in a plastic tunnel
(tomato) or in the field at Radmilovac near
Belgrade (grapevine, B) or in Ovce Pole (maize
and quinoa, C).
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• Deliverables
• The project will deliver
• procedures for strategic water management in
  these river
• basin areas,
• basic models of water and nutrient use for four
  major crops,
• modern irrigation technology and procedures,
  including
• PRD and other deficit irrigation methods,
• agronomic and economic assessment of a new
  drought and
• salt tolerant crop in Macedonia,
• socio-economic assessments with cost-benefit
  analyses
• for water-management and irrigation
  procedures, and
• outreach of the GIS database and modelling
  resources for
• the West Balkans to policy makers and other
  stakeholders.

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The Waterweb team
1. (co-ordinator) Dr S-E Jacobsen, Department
of Agricultural Sciences, KVL University,
Taastrup, Denmark West Balkan Science
Co-ordinator Dr SA Quarrie, Belgrade,
Serbia and Montenegro 2. Dr P Quinn, Dr M
Gorton, School of Civil Engineering and
Geosciences, and School of Agriculture, Food
and Rural Development, University of
Newcastle, Newcastle, UK 3. Dr M Bacon, Dr K
Jones, School of Biological Sciences,
University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK 4. Dr M
Chaves, Instituto Superior de Agronomia
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa Lisbon
1349-017 - Portugal 5. Professor R Stikic,
Faculty of Agriculture Belgrade University
11080 Belgrade-Zemun Serbia and Montenegro
6. Professor D Bosev, Faculty of
Agriculture University of St Cyril and
Methodius, Skopje, Macedonia (Sub-contractor
- Dr Lj Mihajlov, Institute for Southern
Crops) 7. Dr M Bozic, Institute 'Jaroslav
Cerni, Pinosava, Belgrade, Serbia and
Montenegro