When Prime Minister Robert Fico visited farmland near Senec during a recent harvest tour, he surprised many by saying that the government was considering bringing in a major foreign investor to help restore Slovakia’s dilapidated irrigation systems.
Following this week’s developments, it appears he may have found one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On July 29, Fico met with Sheikh and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, after which he said the two had also discussed the issue of irrigation.
“We also discussed a PPP project in Slovak agriculture related to irrigation, as well as the possible entry of an investor from the UAE into Slovakia’s state-controlled spa sector,” he said.
In a press release, the Government Office confirmed that the talks focused on “several promising projects in the fields of transport, investment and agriculture with significant economic potential”.
The UAE president heads the ruling Al Nahyan dynasty of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The family is widely regarded as one of the wealthiest in the world.
Irrigation regularly returns to the political agenda during dry seasons, when drought causes significant losses for farmers – as it has again this year.
Most of Slovakia’s large irrigation systems were built between the 1960s and the 1980s under the communist regime. After 1989, the infrastructure remained state-owned. Today it is managed by Hydromelioracie, a state-owned company operating under the Agriculture Ministry.
Since the fall of communism, however, the irrigation network has steadily deteriorated and most of it is now out of service. At its peak, almost 320,000 hectares of farmland in Slovakia were irrigated. Today, only around 15% of that area remains operational.
The systems that still function do so largely because farming businesses have invested their own money into maintaining them, even though they only lease the infrastructure.
The network nevertheless requires far greater investment. Many farms cannot afford such extensive reconstruction, while the state has not invested meaningfully in irrigation infrastructure for many years.
The possibility of privatising irrigation systems has been discussed within the sector for some time, but the government has rejected the idea. Instead, the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK) has spent several years trying to persuade the Agriculture Ministry to develop public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
The prime minister has now embraced that proposal, referring to it during his recent harvest visit.
“The Agriculture Ministry is currently considering a PPP project. We would find an investor to finance the reconstruction and expansion of irrigation systems where they are needed and would be used. Farmers would then be able to use the systems by paying rent,” Fico said.
However, Slovak farmers originally envisaged PPP projects very differently from a model involving foreign investors who would own the upgraded infrastructure and charge them for using it.
A private investor would only finance such reconstruction if there were a realistic prospect of recovering the investment with a profit. In the case of irrigation, that return is far from guaranteed. One of the main concerns is therefore that farmers could end up paying significantly higher rental fees per hectare of irrigated land.
Juraj Macaj, Slovakia’s largest vegetable producer, has recently told Dennik N that irrigation reconstruction should instead be carried out by domestic farmers through regional water associations.
“Irrigation systems are highly decentralised and there is no justification for managing them at a nationwide level. Even in the past they were not run from a central office in Bratislava, but through regional irrigation cooperatives,” he said.
The Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber said it was not yet in a position to comment on the possible involvement of investors from the UAE, as it lacked sufficient information.
It is also worth asking whether, from the perspective of Slovakia’s food security, it would be wise to entrust such strategic infrastructure to investors from the UAE – a country where food production is severely constrained by water scarcity.
In this respect, the UAE president is no stranger to European agriculture.
The international investigative organisation DeSmog recently revealed that the Al Nahyan royal family receives tens of millions of euros every year through European agricultural subsidies.
Its investigation found that, over the past six years alone, farms owned by the family in Romania, Spain and Italy have received more than EUR 71 million in EU agricultural subsidies.
The Al Nahyan family rules the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and is also the most powerful political dynasty in the UAE.
According to Bloomberg, the family has a fortune estimated at EUR 277 billion, making it the world’s second-richest family. Its wealth comes primarily from the country’s oil and gas resources. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the head of the dynasty, also serves as President of the UAE.
The agricultural subsidies reach the royal family through state-owned investment funds that acquire farmland and agricultural businesses around the world.
According to The Guardian, the United Arab Emirates controls almost one million hectares of agricultural land worldwide.
The strategy is intended to strengthen the UAE’s own food security. Located in a region with poor conditions for crop cultivation and livestock farming, the country imports around 90% of its food.
This was the second meeting between Fico and the UAE president in a relatively short period. During Fico’s visit to Abu Dhabi last October, he was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer).
Following the visit, the Agriculture Ministry issued a press release describing Takac’s meeting with Dr Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak Al Shamsi, the UAE’s Minister of Climate Change.
The two reportedly discussed cooperation in climate adaptation, innovation and agriculture.
During his visit, Takac toured several farms and also highlighted the long-standing cooperation between Slovakia and the United Arab Emirates in the field of falconry.
“This visit has once again demonstrated that Slovakia’s sovereign foreign policy, oriented towards all four points of the compass, delivers concrete results. It is a policy based on cooperation, not ideology,” he said. (The Slovak Spectator)