With agriculture consuming roughly three-quarters of all fresh water in Italy and a climate that can get very hot and dry in the peak growing season, farmers across the country face particular water challenges.

Our Italian colleagues have launched a cool, Italian-language blog on water (www.aqua-blog.com) to share, among other things, Monsanto’s experiences in producing more maize with less land and water. This experience centres around the AquaTEK™ program, a private-public collaboration that brings together key components of farming: water management, better seeds, irrigation system options, and training and education.

There’s a lot more on the water blog as well, including relevant events about water and agriculture in Italy and a section with interviews of people (from Monsanto and outside) working on important agriculture, water and sustainability issues.

For non-Italian speakers out there, you can also learn more about the AquaTEK™ program here: http://www.monsanto.com/improvingagriculture/pages/aquatek.aspx.