Why Are Small Farmers Opting out of a Collaborative Agreement for Groundwater Sustainability? an Experiment Conducted in the South of Portugal By the Egroundwater Project
By implementing a participatory action research process, eGROUNDWATER aimed to develop a collective management process as path to overcome overexploitation of the Campina de Faro aquifer. Based on methods such as interviews, meetings and workshops with stakeholders, we understood that some kind of association integrating the diversity of users was welcome by all. However, as the process moved on to the implementation stage, farmers, mainly small farmers, and farmer cooperatives opted out. Both an overall feeling of unjust treatment by the water administration, that farmers are the most penalised compared to tourism and golfs, and widespread belief that just by increasing water supply, mainly through new dams, underlie the lack of commitment to the collective effort. In addition, a past of failed cooperative attempts demotivates farmers. This created a challenge to the research process, as inclusion was a mean to the success of the associative management. It became clear that having water as entry point was not the best strategy in dealing with farmers, when the biggest problems are linked to profitability in the short term. It also became clear that academic research, that is not specifically agronomic and supportive of farmers in their own property, is not given enough credit. The issues to reflect here is how to design, equip and fund research projects whose aim is groundwater sustainability, if we want to meet the research objectives and have a long term impact.