Tuesday, March 25, 2025

WATER - AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRICES UNDER THREAT DUE TO HIGH CONSUMPTION

 Filenews 25 March 2025



The battle for water saving has begun and the participation of all of us is required in order to reach next winter without much inconvenience and deprivation.

The problem, however, does not begin or end in our homes. It is spreading to all sectors of the economy, with the first and most important that of agriculture, with the risk of seeing fruit and vegetable prices in shops and supermarkets skyrocket.

And if some cannot calculate the cost of irrigation, we are able to inform them, after we have collected the necessary data from the Institute of Agricultural Research:

– A family, depending on its size, consumes an average of 120 to 240 tons of water per year.

– Overall, and according to official data, the agricultural sector consumes about 70% of Cyprus' water resources.

But which of our vegetables need the most water:

– To cultivate kolokashi on a tenth of land, 2,325 tons of water are required, while

– For the clover to grow, 1,245 tons of water are needed.

– To grow bananas on a tenth of land, 1,217 tons of water are required.

– For lettuce, 344.57 tons per tenth are used,

– for field cucumbers, 447.80 tonnes are used in the April-July period and

– 584.15 tons of water are used for greenhouse cucumbers.

– To produce one kilogram of potatoes, about 130-150 liters of water are required.

As it seems, if we do not save water, we will not only be thirsty but may also go hungry. Apart from agriculture, we have livestock farming and certainly tourism and everything is extended, in the end, to the entire economy.