Rice growers in the Guadalquivir marshlands will be able to plant this year, after a 2023 drought that left water scarcity and forced a halt to planting. The dry spell caused losses estimated at over 700 million euros and around 5,000 jobs in the previous season, according to figures from the Sevilla Rice Farmers Federation.
For 2024, the sector feared a repeat of a blank year. Yet after the Nelson storm system passed, the outlook shifted dramatically. What felt almost impossible a month ago—getting fields ready to sow—has turned into a pathway of cautious optimism. The mood among growers has brightened, replacing the earlier pessimism with a sense of opportunity.[citation]
“People’s outlook has changed”
“The people’s outlook this Monday is different; faces that looked resigned have found hope again.” This is how Isla Mayor’s mayor, Juan Molero, described the recent rainfall, calling it “a blessing for the town.”
“Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” added the town’s leader, who plans to see “the whole Isla Mayor planted with rice this year.”
He acknowledged, however, that the hard work remains: tilling the soil and preparing everything for sowing. “But the rice farmers know how to do it,” he said calmly.[citation]
37% of the general regulation reservoirs capacity
As of April 1, the general Regulation System reservoirs—used to supply irrigation—stood at 37% capacity. Only 40 days earlier, when the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority held the first Desalination Commission meeting, this system showed a 21.9% fill. Thus, there has been a 15-point rise in just over a month and a half.[citation]
50% planting guaranteed
“This is a very good signal,” noted Eduardo Vera, the managing director of the Sevilla Rice Farmers Federation. He explained that with this situation, at least half of the arable surface is assured for planting this year, and there is cautious optimism that water levels will continue to rise, since sowing typically starts in May or June.
“If the water allocation can exceed 50%, that would be ideal,” Vera added, describing the ongoing preparation of the land. He estimated that about 5,000 jobs could be reinstated, jobs that were left uncertain after the previous year’s drought.
“Until the land dries, we cannot start the necessary work that in other years would have begun earlier to plant,” he noted, adding that the farmers know how to manage the process well.[citation]
To determine whether that 50% figure holds, officials would need to wait for the next meeting of the Desalination Commission, expected at the end of April, according to sources from the Andalucian River Basin Authority. The discussion will set the course for the season’s allocation.[citation]
“For the growers, the cost of the campaign is almost the same whether planting 50% or 100%, which is why we aim for the maximum possible allocation,” Vera affirmed.
Needed infrastructure
The Isla Mayor mayor underscored that rain alone cannot distract authorities from the essential infrastructure that guarantees yearly planting. “It cannot be that after rains I forget about maintenance, because we are in a period of plenty only in perception,” he warned.
In this context, the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority announced early in the year the tender for five projects with a total investment of 240 million euros. These works, coordinated with the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, aim to support rice cultivation in the marshes. A separate project focuses on rehabilitating the starting stretch of the Bajo Guadalquivir Canal, as part of ongoing improvements.[citation]
Authorities expect these works to wrap up in about five years, by 2029. They will enable water from the Peñaflor dam near Seville to reach the rice zone in the marshes by raising the Bajo Guadalquivir Canal’s capacity, and will introduce new distribution channels on the marsh’s right bank.
Such infrastructure will lower salinity levels in the irrigation water compared with that near the river mouth. It’s important to note that tides up to Alcalá del Río influence the salinity of the Guadalquivir and, by extension, affect crop yields.[citation]”