“In Brittany, it only rains on idiots — or Parisians”, according to a Breton saying. The region is known for being grey and wet, so the locals in this area of north-west France are always better prepared for a sudden downpour.
Yet, in Europe’s summer drought last year, little or no rain fell on the people, land or rivers in Brittany, the second biggest food-producing region in France. Farmers described harvests as “catastrophic” and, as recently as January, individuals, farmers and factories were still being asked to use less water.
Modelling by a range of researchers now suggests that these droughts will become longer and more frequent as climate change intensifies. Work by World Weather Attribution, a collaboration between climate scientists, has found a direct link between a warming world and 2022’s dry summer period.
Meanwhile, in the US, a dispute between the states that use the Colorado River for hydration is proving hard to settle as water supplies become scarcer.
All of this is pushing farmers into the front line of battles for diminishing supplies of fresh water — even in traditionally rainy areas — given that agriculture accounts for an average 70 per cent of total fresh water use, worldwide.
In rainy Brittany, the family of Bénédicte Pélerin (pictured above) is already taking action ahead of predicted droughts. Its organic dairy farm has 80 cows producing around 430,000 litres of milk a year. Each cow drinks 100 litres daily, Pélerin explains, and washing the milking room takes another 600 litres. Washing tractors and other equipment requires further supplies, but the family retrieves water from cleaning the milking machinery to sluice the milking room.
Outside, the family has planted trees and hedgerows and it is restoring marshland to protect biodiversity, create cooler areas, and keep moisture in the soil.
“After 20 years of organic farming, we see the ground holds more moisture [compared to other farms],” says 37-year-old Pélerin.
“Last summer’s drought made everyone more aware about water,” she says. But how to respond has divided opinion among farmers. “One group is taking notice and know they can’t continue with business as usual, that there are certain limits. But others are just focused on the bottom line.”
Despite much opposition from a range of groups with an interest in farming and the countryside, the French government is maintaining its strategy of building “mega basins” — huge reservoirs that cover several hectares. The plan is that the reservoirs fill up in the winter with rain and groundwater, which will then be used to irrigate crops in the summer.
Opponents argue that groundwater drawn from aquifers will still be needed because rainwater alone will not fill them, and that access to the water may be unfairly limited. Tensions can run high: in Sainte-Soline, western France, where a huge water basin is under construction, violence has broken out between protesters and police in recent months.
On the question of groundwater, French government data show that levels across the country were far from replenished by January 2023. Another challenge for surface water reservoirs is that they suffer from “very high levels of evaporation in periods of intense heat, leading to significant water loss”, says Christian Amblard, honorary researcher at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. Only about 6 per cent of French farmland, or 15 per cent of farms, has irrigation equipment, he adds. That would mean only the biggest farms, “notably maize farmers”, are likely to benefit from the mega basins.
Irrigation systems to take water from natural sources to where it is needed might seem a good response to drought, but some doubt there will be enough fresh water to meet growing demand. Irrigation enabled semi-arid parts of southern Spain to become “Europe’s vegetable garden”, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) acknowledged in a report last year. But it also pointed out that climate change will have implications for Spain’s supplies: for instance, using desalination to provide enough fresh water would increase its carbon footprint.
There is an “irrigation paradox”, says environmentalist George Monbiot. “As efficiency improves, and the same amount of water can be used to grow more crops, irrigation becomes cheaper.”
In his recent book Regenesis, he outlined why farm irrigation can be problematic.
“Because so much water is used for farming, rivers such as the Colorado and the Rio Grande fail to reach the ocean,” he wrote. And in big food-growing areas, the falling water table harms biodiversity.
Amblard advocates for practices that keep water circulating between sky, ground and plants, rather than letting it run off the land. His recommendations include maintaining wet zones and limiting the use of “monstrous” farm machines that compact earth so it cannot absorb water.
Some argue that efforts to reduce water use need not be limited to the farmland itself. The IWMI outlines examples in which water moves between rural and urban areas, with farmers paid to hand over their rights to rural water basins in return for treated urban wastewater to fill gaps in agricultural water supply. Others say farmers and consumers should be encouraged to favour crops better suited to a drier climate.
In Brittany, as elsewhere in France, tempers have frayed as farmers argue over whether advocates such as Pélerin and Amblard are right when they press for circular efforts that reduce waste and retain moisture.
Pélerin admits not everyone is onboard — but she hopes, nevertheless, for a “collective awakening” among farmers in favour of water efficiency.
