The Directorate-General for Rural Development and Forestry Policy participated in the international workshop organized by the European Innovation Partnership for Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (EIP-AGRI), sharing the experiences of the first National Focus Group on Irrigation, Environment, and Climate. This Focus Group aims to foster debate among stakeholders and clearly define innovation needs. It also serves as a possible starting point for the creation of Operational Groups on this subject within the framework of EIP-AGRI.

The objectives of this Fund are to reduce energy consumption and costs, promote the use of renewable energy sources instead of conventional energy sources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts, and control invasive species responsible for the decrease in energy efficiency in irrigated agriculture.

The Focus Group is made up of 20 members from universities and research centers, public assessment bodies, public and private companies, farmers' associations, irrigation communities, environmental non-governmental organizations, as well as a representative from the Spanish Office for Climate Change and EPI-AGRI.

The results of the work carried out so far by this GF were made available to the final recipients with the help of the National Rural Network, which organized a workshop for this purpose, and also contributed to its dissemination through its website http://www.redruralnacional.es/grupo-focal-sobre-regadio-energia-y-medio-ambiente

MAGRAMA has recently launched a new National Focus Group on the economic sustainability of forest management.

For more information, see this link.