Sustainable water management: CSQA issues the first three "Gocciaverde" certificates

9 verifiable and measurable indicators to support reclamation consortia, producer organizations and farms

Sustainable water management is an increasingly imperative and constantly evolving priority, which events in the territories strongly testify to both as regards the risk of floods and that linked to drought, photographed in the latest report by the Istituto Superiore per Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) as a progressive phenomenon that led to the loss of 20% of national water resources in the thirty-year period 1991-2021.

It is to respond to this need that " Gocciaverde " was born, the voluntary certification of water sustainability of the National Association of Consortia for the Management and Protection of the Territory and Irrigated Waters (ANBI) which also involved CSQA both in the initial definition phase of the standard both for the control of the specific requirements and the attestation of the certification. A concrete commitment towards innovation , sustainable development and the qualitative and quantitative protection of water resources which in recent weeks has led CSQA to issue the first three certificates to the Bellini Carlo Agricultural Company and to the Fruit and Vegetables Intercommunal Cooperative, both of Modena. and to the Piscitiello Antonio farm in Salerno.

Indeed, Gocciaverde was created in order to give an element of competitiveness to the reclamation and irrigation consortia, to producer organizations and to Italian farms , thanks to a certification process based on compliance with 9 specific criteria - linked to verifiable and measurable indicators - ranging from from the optimization of the water resource, to the reduction of the energy impact, from the improvement of water quality to training actions, passing through the role of "facilitator" of new technologies and for the increase of socio-economic sustainability.

An opportunity to adapt to climate policies and to modernize irrigated agriculture for producers who, thanks to an education path to socio-economic sustainability and the use of new technologies, are stimulated to transition towards agriculture 4.0. The objective is achieved through long-term planning which envisages the use of data sets and information bases and the support of water policies through investments aimed at sustainable development.

The main opportunities for reclamation consortia, producers' organizations and farms concern: adaptation to climate policies; the standardization of good water management and use practices; the stimulus to medium/long-term planning; the orientation of investments for the sustainability of production; the improvement and modernization of irrigated agriculture; support for the transition to agriculture 4.0; the possibility of internal and district benchmarking; the creation of data sets and information bases; support for water policies. Among the advantages for producers there is also the possibility of conveying to the consumer respect for water resources through a specific label with QR code affixed to product packaging to verify traceability.

“Sustainability and innovation are the keywords that have always guided our work.” - underlines Pietro Bonato, General Manager and CEO of CSQA . “The protection of water resources is a strategic lever in the paths of environmental sustainability of institutions and operators in the primary sector. The water management system, envisaged in Goccia Verde, represents in this sense a highly innovative project, which has a vision towards the future. We are proud as CSQA to have contributed, with our skills, to the realization of this project.

“Gocciaverde – says Francesco Vincenzi, President of ANBI – increases awareness of the risks and opportunities associated with water resources in a preventive key and provides tools to institutional operators, reclamation and economic consortia, producers' and farmers' organizations, on actions for sustainability in uses and the protection of waters, soils and ecosystem services closely connected to them. The goal is to arrive at a constant, non-emergency, ability to manage sustainability, the protection of territories and productions in a context of climate and socio-economic change which requires the maximization of benefits and the minimization of risks, both as regards quantitative-qualitative limits to access to water, both for the management of the resource when scarce or in excess”.