Chiaras: Geographic Improvement Works Coming That Reduce Water Losses in Irrigation

They come that increase the efficiency of agricultural land and reduce water losses in irrigation from the budget of EUR 169 million, according to the pre-publicisation of the call for proposals for the intervention of ‘General Improvement Infrastructure’. According to today’s pre-publicisation of the call for proposals in the context of the intervention of the Joint Agricultural Policy Plan of Greece 2023-2024, the project is co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Greek State at 100%, while the total budget of the intervention is 169m euros and due to its important character, depending on demand, will be over-committed. Beneficiaries for the submission of the relevant proposals shall be: Ministry of Rural Development & Food, General Directorate for Rural Development, Directorate for General Improvements and Ground Water Resources. Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, General Directorate for Hydraulics, Ports and Building Infrastructure, Directorate for Flood and Geothermal Works Regions (Component services responsible, in accordance with national legislation, for the design and preparation of the project programme). Municipalities of Thessaly and Municipalities of Regional Units of Evros and Fthiotida (Competitive services which are responsible, in accordance with national legislation, for the design and preparation of the project concerned). The call appropriations will finance infrastructure for land improvements relating to: Modernisation of existing irrigation networks and their related supporting infrastructure. Renovation and replacement of electromechanical equipment. Water savings projects and associated irrigation networks. Energy saving projects in irrigation. Supply and installation of precision telemetry and agriculture systems. Use recycled water. Works of artificial enrichment of groundwater in network renovation by drilling. – A minimum budget of the submitted operations is set at EUR 5,000,000,00 (including VAT). – The maximum budget of the operations submitted is 105,000. EUR 000,00 (including VAT). Rural Development and Food Minister Costas Tsiaras said: “At a time when water shortage is one of the major problems in the primary sector we have a duty to seek ways of making good use of existing water resources. With the projects to be co-financed, the reduction of water losses is achieved, increasing the efficiency of the use of water in agriculture by means of interventions to contain winter run-offs and interventions aimed at reducing water losses. Our aim through projects is to increase the efficiency of the use of irrigation water and improve the competitiveness of Greek agriculture.”