Stakeholder and driver analysis on energy efficiency in Agriculture. Country Report - Portugal.

Abstract

Until recently energy efficiency in agriculture has received little attention. Nevertheless, energy consumption in agriculture is considerable, especially when indirect energy use is taken into account. AGREE has the objective of showing the potential of short term energy efficiency gains and the promise of a long term potential. Environmental effects of savings on direct and indirect energy use in agriculture are integrally considered, as energy use efficiency also implies reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. According with EU (2009) Portugal is in the group of EU countries most vulnerable in terms of negative impacts of climate change. It is expected a reduction yield due to several effects, such as the increased climatic variability, average temperature increase, reduction of rainfall and higher concentration in the winter period and higher occurrence of extreme events (floods, droughts and heat waves). Some national policy measures already take these aspects in consideration, which led, for example to the construction of new irrigation infrastructures and the improvement of existing ones, the encouragement to farmers to use soil conservation practices, among others. The objective of this report is to analyse the drivers and introduce the stakeholders which have impact on energy efficiency in the Portuguese agriculture. For that a general characterization of the Portuguese agriculture sector is presented followed by the analyses of drivers and stakeholders.