PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The Guadalquivir river basin is in the south of Spain, with a surface area of 57,527 km², including parts of four regions: Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia. Rains in the area are often torrential and fall on lands recurrently affected by long periods of drought and high temperatures, and a marked susceptibility to erosion. In the basin, there are numerous protected areas, with designation of the surface water or groundwater, or for the conservation of habitats and species directly depending on the water. In the Guadalquivir basin, there is chronic water scarcity and available supply for the last 20 years has varied from as little as 20% of demand up to 80-100% in the good years (only one out of three).
The Segura river basin is located in the south east of Spain, with a surface area of about 18 870 km², and covering four regions: practically the whole of Murcia and parts of Andalucia, Castilla-La Mancha and Valencia. Average annual rainfall is about 400 mm, with a very irregular pattern and a clear contrast between the headwater areas and the intermediate and lower parts of the basin.
The Segura river basin is the most water deficient in Spain, and one of the most water deficient in the European Union, with a structural water deficit of about 460 hm3 per year. The amount of water is insufficient to meet consumption, even when there is high water-use efficiency. The Segura basin is the most regulated in Europe, with the implementation of the most modern production systems: drip irrigation, hydroponics, greenhouses, automated irrigation demand and others. However, there is a long way to go to further improve management of the river basin.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE+ IRRIMAN project aimed to implement an efficient irrigation management schedule for two areas in the Segura Basin and one in the Guadalquivir basin. The project would implement, demonstrate and disseminate a sustainable irrigation strategy for use with woody crops in Mediterranean agro-ecosystems. The strategy would be based on reduction of water supply during non-critical periods, the covering of water needs during critical periods and maximising yields per unit of applied water.
The project would implement demonstration plots where sustainable irrigation protocols would be applied. Different cropping zones would be selected with the most representative fruit trees, including peach, table grapes, citrus, apricot, early apricot and almond.
More specifically, the project planned three phases:
- Installation of sensors to measure soil and water status in different fruit trees;
- Using data from the sensors, the beneficiary would develop a series of sustainable irrigation schedules depending on the type of cultivation and the area;
- Once the sustainable irrigation models would have been created, the project would assess: o The environmental effects of sustainable irrigation in terms of water and energy consumption, runoff water quantity and quality, water leaching depth, NO3 leaching and the capability of the soil to fix carbon;
- Vegetative growth and crop yield so irrigation can be adjusted at any time if it is necessary for adaptation to quality standards; and
- Crop yields and the final fruit quality at harvest in order to verify the effectiveness of the sustainable irrigation strategy.
RESULTS
The LIFE+ IRRIMAN project team demonstrated new, efficient irrigation management strategies for woody crops in Mediterranean agroecosystems, enabling reductions in the use of irrigation water by 30% without affecting the quality of the product. They implemented this approach in the irrigation communities of Campotéjar, Miraflores and Genil Cabra, in southeast Spain.
In the project area, the scarcity and irregularity of rainfall, coupled with high evaporation, lead to major seasonal water deficits. In these conditions, irrigation water is the principal production factor. The beneficiaries implementation strategies that achieved a decrease in the use of irrigation water from 6 500 m3/year/ha to 4 000 m3/year/ha in the demonstration plots located in the Irrigation Community of Campotéjar.
As the irrigation systems installed in the plots selected in this irrigation community are pressurised, the partners achieved reductions in energy consumption by 30%. The energy consumption was reduced from 2 400 kW/year/ha to 1 700 kW/year/ha after applying deficit irrigation strategies (saving of 700 kWh/year/ha of energy). Due to the decrease in energy consumption achieved, greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions were also reduced by 30%.
After the implementation of deficit irrigation strategies in the selected plots, the beneficiaries demonstrated that the reduction in water applied by irrigation improves crop yield by 10%. Regarding the organoleptic quality of the fruits, the beneficiaries also observed an improvement based on the increase by 10% of soluble solids and more uniform fruit colour.
Regarding water leaching, the 30% decrease in irrigation water entailed a 30% reduction in nitrate leaching, reducing the pollution of aquifers by leaching of nitrates applied as fertiliser.
The project partners carried out training courses, seminars and technical visits, and the knowledge acquired after applying reduced irrigation strategies was transferred to farmers and technicians. During the implementation of project activities, the beneficiaries reported that other farmers of the three participating irrigation communities were very interested in learning how to apply deficit irrigation strategies in their crops.
To help farmers apply deficit irrigation strategies, the project team designed an App to calculate the amount of irrigation water to be added to a crop following deficit irrigation. The calculation algorithm takes into consideration air temperature and the early contraction of the plant’s trunk. Using this tool, farmers will be able to plan each week the deficit irrigation strategy to apply to their woody crops.
At the end of the project, irrigation strategies based on deficit irrigation were being applied by farmers in up 15 000 ha of irrigated land in the municipalities of Jumilla, Córdoba and Molina de Segura. In Spain, the agricultural sector consumes around 80% of the total water resources, so a small saving in irrigation can represent an important volume of water that can be used in other sectors.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).
