Luis Planas, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. announced an investment of up to 2,130 million euros to promote sustainable irrigation in spain. About 1.255 million of this aid, which was announced at the press conference held by the portfolio head after the Council of Ministers meeting, will go to the European funds, and 835 million will go to the General Government Budget (PGE). Tuesday. The purpose of this money is to promote water conservation and the use of unconventional and those that come from irrigation or desalination plants. Work will also be carried out on the digitization of Irrigation Communities and the cooperation of the Ministry of Industry’s hydrological plans with PERTE Agrifood and the water cycle will be strengthened. The Minister of Agriculture assures that he is concerned about the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Spain, but ignores that it is excessive.
The Minister reported on the development of this plan, which envisages operating on more than 750,000 hectares. The goal is to save 10% on average compared to the initial situation. Planas placed this report in the framework prior to this Wednesday’s Drought Table meeting, which autonomous communities and agricultural and irrigation organizations will attend to analyze the current situation and “possible measures” to be taken.
“We are in a moment particularly difficult from a hydrological point of view as well as precipitationThe minister recognized that the decrease in precipitation since last October 1 is 18.8 percent compared to previous years, and the decrease in Spain as a whole since the turn of the century has reached 12 percent.
Concerning irrigation, which covers 3.8 million hectares of crops, accounting for 23% of the total but 65% of all plant production in Spain, Planas described this as “key to the future”, so he announced that the Government is working on “short-term answers”. Based on this Wednesday’s Drought Chart meeting where they will consider possible measures to be adopted and future measures regarding the sustainability of the irrigation system.
“The debate isn’t whether irrigation is yes or irrigation is no, it’s sustainable irrigation, which is what it should be for today and for the future.” in the future, if we want to continue with the level of production that allows food autonomy.He insisted that modernizing irrigation is key to making it more efficient, while also stating that it affects the importance of other resources, such as recycled or desalinated water.
Sustainable irrigation scheme offered makes investment consider The “highest in history” responsible for the plan to rescue 1.255 million and 875 million more from the general government budget to reduce water consumption by 10 percent.
Controversy over watering Doñana
Planas described the bill being processed in the Andalusian Parliament to tidy the nearly 800 hectares of irrigated land around Doñana National Park as “clearly illegal”. It is contrary to the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it assumes a non-autonomous authority and is unrealistic because there is no water available and there is no title to be attributed to water.”
The minister showed that he was very disturbed by the Andalusian Parliament’s decision and asked the authorities. “Authors of the initiative” to “step back” and the reputational damage to Spain due to its plan to streamline irrigation in the sector should be avoided. “Doñana is to biodiversity what Prado is to painting, Something we have to defend because it’s our heritage“, Planas stated.
The Minister reminded the following decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union: In 2021 condemned Spain for non-compliance with the Water Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive. It also considers this proposal “illegal” and “untrue” because it seeks to distribute water that “is not in that area in the current context”. The minister assured that the initiative would not satisfy farmers in the region, adding that it created “unrealistic” expectations. Therefore, he asked the Junta de Andalucía to withdraw the proposal and approved the announcement of the third vice-president of the Government that he would challenge the unconstitutionality when the legal process was completed.