WATERAGRI: Farm-Scale Solutions for Water Retention and Nutrient Recycling in Agriculture

WATERAGRI aims to address critical challenges in agricultural water and nutrient management by developing scalable, farm-level solutions. The project focuses on improving water retention in soils and streams while optimizing nutrient recycling to enhance agricultural productivity. A core objective is bridging the gap between scientific innovation and practical application, ensuring solutions are accessible to farmers, advisors, and future agricultural professionals. By integrating both soft (e.g., awareness-raising) and technical (e.g., modeling) approaches, the initiative seeks to foster sustainable farming practices across Europe. Collaboration with stakeholders—from students to regional advisory services—ensures the solutions are grounded in real-world needs and scalable across diverse agricultural contexts.

Keywords: Farm-scale water management, Nutrient recycling in agriculture, Serious gaming for stakeholder engagement, physically based hydrological modelling, Data assimilation systems, Sustainable agricultural practices, Soil moisture forecasting, Stakeholder awareness and education, European agricultural case studies, Advisory services for farmers

Addressing Water Scarcity and Nutrient Loss in Modern Agriculture

Agriculture faces growing challenges due to inefficient water retention and nutrient depletion in soils, exacerbated by climate variability and unsustainable farming practices. These issues directly impact crop yields, soil health, and long-term agricultural viability, particularly in regions prone to droughts or excessive rainfall. Traditional farming methods often fail to optimize water and nutrient use, leading to economic losses for farmers and environmental degradation, such as groundwater contamination or soil erosion. The problem is compounded by a lack of accessible, farm-level tools that integrate scientific insights with practical decision-making. WATERAGRI focuses on these gaps by targeting solutions that are both technically robust and adaptable to diverse agricultural contexts across Europe, from northern to southern regions, including unique zones like the Pannonian Basin.

The project recognizes that solutions must balance three dimensions of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social—to be effective. Farmers require support to navigate complex trade-offs, such as investing in new equipment or adjusting fertilizer use, while accounting for unpredictable weather events. Existing large-scale catchment models often overlook the nuanced needs of individual farms, leaving a critical gap in precision agriculture. WATERAGRI’s approach centers on developing farm-scale interventions that are scientifically validated yet practical for everyday use, ensuring they align with the realities of modern farming. By addressing these challenges holistically, the project aims to create a framework where water and nutrient management become integral to resilient agricultural systems.

A dual-pronged approach combining stakeholder engagement and advanced technical modeling

The WATERAGRI project employs two distinct yet complementary methodologies to address water retention and nutrient recycling in agricultural systems. The approach integrates a participatory, awareness-raising tool with a high-precision technical solution to ensure scalability across farm and catchment levels.

• Develop a serious board game (Agema) to simulate real-world farming challenges, where players navigate decisions on crop selection, fertilizer use, and equipment investment while responding to dynamic events like droughts or heat waves.
• Structure the game around the three pillars of sustainability —environmental, economic, and social—to evaluate trade-offs in farming practices and foster systemic understanding among diverse stakeholders, including students and advisors.
• Test and refine the game through iterative stakeholder workshops, PhD summer schools, and project meetings to validate its effectiveness in raising awareness and transferring knowledge about water and nutrient management technologies.
• Implement a data assimilation system for physically based hydrological models to enhance real-time forecasting of soil moisture and groundwater levels in agricultural watersheds.
• Integrate sensor and remote-sensing data into existing terrestrial system models to correct initial conditions, reduce forecast errors, and improve short-term decision-making for water and nutrient management.
• Deploy the models in living labs across European case studies to simulate intervention scenarios and generate actionable insights for regional advisory services.
• Target advisory service providers as intermediaries to bridge the gap between complex model outputs and practical farm-level applications, ensuring accessibility for farmers without direct technical expertise.
• Combine generic, soft solutions with highly technical solutions to address both awareness gaps and precision needs in agricultural water and nutrient management.
  
  

Enhanced decision-making and sustainability in agriculture through innovative tools

The project aims to improve water and nutrient management in agriculture by providing practical solutions tailored to farm-scale operations. Farmers and stakeholders will gain access to tools that raise awareness of challenges related to water retention, nutrient recycling, and soil health, fostering more informed decision-making. The serious game component offers an interactive way to understand the complexities of farming, particularly the balance between economic viability, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility. Meanwhile, the data assimilation system enhances the accuracy of hydrological forecasts, enabling better short-term planning for soil moisture and groundwater management. Advisory services and researchers can leverage these models to test agricultural interventions, optimizing resource use and reducing risks associated with weather variability. Over time, the integration of these tools is expected to contribute to more resilient farming systems, improved agricultural productivity, and reduced environmental degradation.

Unique Selling Proposition

WATERAGRI bridges the gap between farmer decision-making and advanced science by combining hands-on, stakeholder-driven tools like serious gaming with cutting-edge, data-assimilated hydrological models for real-time agricultural management.
This dual approach ensures both immediate engagement and long-term precision, empowering farmers, advisors, and researchers to optimize water and nutrient use at both farm and catchment scales.

This article was generated with the support of artificial intelligence. While it has been reviewed and edited for clarity and accuracy, the primary content was generated by an AI tool.

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