ASOCIACIONES MOLECULARES DE CD6 EN LA SUPERFICIE DE LOS LINFOCITOS T

This expert interviewee is responsible for the water department of the agricultural association. This association represents a large number of organisations which are related farming. Their main objective is the defence of farmers’ interests and to act as a bridge between environmental policies and the agriculture sector. They analyse the environmental policies and provide advice

on these policies to association members. The associations have regional and sector councils and also have a permanent representative in EU.

The NVivo coding for this interview is depicted below.

Fig. 4-22 NVivo coding for E5 (NSA) interview

From NVivo 10 coding a summarised table was created grouping the tree nodes and presenting the interview references expressing the number of references for each node. Table 4-20 is depicted below.

Fig 4.23 presents the “rich picture” for this interview.

The interviewee stated that there is a huge variety of agriculture sectors. Each sector has several types of problem. The EU agricultural common policy is expected to condition agriculture in the future.

Table 4-20 Attribute details, description and conflicts (summarised table) – E5(NSA) (Stakeholder Agriculture)

Attribute Description Conflicts

Consultation (brown) Farmers’ association main objective is to defend farmers’ interests (1 time); Frequent consultations with National Water Institute and

BDAs (1 times);

Represented on National Water Council (1 time).

Some consultations seemed to be only in respect of WFD compliance obligations and were inefficient (4 times); Support documents are often sent too late to be properly analysed before meetings, not allowing their proper analysis and consultation with members consultation (3 times);

Some members are engaged in participation but do not have a solid opinion but are equally considered as Farmers Associations (2 times).

EU politics (blue) Each agricultural section has different problems and the next EU Agricultural Policy will condition the future of agriculture for all (2 times)

Agriculture finance issues are deteriorating due to EU rules (2 times).

Legitimacy (grey) The Agricultural

Confederation encompasses Farmers Associations, Federations of Irrigators’ “Unions” and Regional Councils (3 times). The Agriculture Confederation has

representatives on the EU agricultural common policy committee (1 time).

Problems in cattle rearing and pig rearing sectors (1 time);

Agriculture has a huge variety of practices and concerns (6 times);

Common Farming Politics will condition agriculture (2 times);

Efficient water use is needed (1 time).

Managers’ actions

(green)

Several State Offices have different data on agriculture in their area (2 times).

Table 4-20 Attribute details, description and conflicts (summarised table) – E5(NSA) (Stakeholder Agriculture) (cont.)

Power and competition (red)

Collaboration with National Water Council and Work groups for consultation (8 times);

Consultation with their associations (3 times); Some farmers belong to several associations according with their interests (3 times)

Unknown water needs for crops in Portugal (2 times); Each sector of agriculture has its problems (2 times); Agriculture is said to be responsible for pollution but sometimes the source is different (7 times);

Statistical data is not usable (1 time)

Stakeholders’ salience (black)

Represented on National Water Council (2 times); They are “social partners” (2 times).

Urgency (orange) Some problems remain

unsolved in production sector (3 times);

Environmental politics interfere with agriculture (1 time).

Trust relationships (rose)

Close relationship with the Water National Institute and BDAs (2 times).

They are frequently consulted by the National Water Institute and BDAs. They are represented on the National Water Council. When consulted they search for information, explanations and try to influence environmental policies for the benefit of their sector.

A criticism was made about the difficulty of being more collaborative with State Offices when consultation support documentation has to be completed in such a short time. Normally, State Offices produce technical documents, using technical language; new documentation needs to be prepared using simple language for their associate’s to understand. The interviewee stated that local farmers have in-depth knowledge about local problems; therefore, their advice is very important. Farmers’ associations are said to support farmers, creating trust relationships and obtaining information and advising them. The association engages farmers in expressing their opinions.

The interviewee stated that there is a close relationship between the association and the Administration, however, they complain about the State Offices for considering other consultation contributions, from less qualified individuals The interviewee also pointed out the problem of comparing data from different State Offices. Normally, State Offices are also responsible for areas beyond the range of the river basin and the National Statistics Institute publishes data for administrative regions which are not part of the basin area. Data, related to river basins, collected from different sources is not comparable throughout the country, but this is an important issue if the various State Offices, responsible for basin areas, are to communicate.

The agricultural sector is often accused of being responsible for polluting the rivers. However, on many occasions the source of pollution is other than the agricultural sector. The lack of usable data does not favour clear identification of the source of the problem.

According to the stakeholder theory (expressed in section 2.7.3), this association presents several attributes.

Urgency is due to their expressed need to solve a number of pollution problems in sectors such as cattle and pig rearing. They say that there are installations with the best technology available, but they still experience problems; but many others remain without a solution.

Legitimacy is established because the agricultural association possesses a large number of farmers as members; the association raises the concerns of their members with the Administration, and is also responsible for being fully conversant with all the EU policies.

Power seems to be, to some extent, based on the option of having a strong relationship with Administration, keeping up the pressure for the benefit of their members. The interviewee said that they try to analyse environmental policies, and search for ways to use them for the benefit of the agricultural sector.

They try to maintain a “definitive stakeholders” position, according to fig. 2.3.