The
Guadiana river-basin is a large trans-national basin shared by Spain and Portugal. We have selected two adjacent pilot areas on either side of the border.
The Spanish side of the basin (
Vegas del Guadiana, in the Extremadura Region) includes over 200.000 ha of irrigated land, mostly developed by the state government (while 15 % were from private initiative). Of the state irrigated areas, 77 % have water distributed by gravity with canals, while 23% are distributed with pressurized systems. The State irrigated areas are totally provided with surface water from different dams in the Guadiana and Tajo river basins. The total basin capacity is 7.743,9 Hm3. The water quality of those dams can be considered as good, and excellent in some cases. The total irrigation water demand in the Guadiana river basin is under below the total dam capacity, from which we can conclude that “water deficit” are expected only in drought periods.
The main irrigated crops are: Corn, rice, tomato for processing, Tobacco, Fruit trees, different kind of horticultural crops, pepper for paprika, potato, sunflower, pasture, olive trees, vineyards, almond and walnut trees.
he State Irrigated areas in the Extremadura region are administrated by 29 irrigation communities, which are integrated in the basin organisms (Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadiana). There also are several irrigation communities from private irrigation. The Local Government only has relationship with 28 of those communities.
The main problems affecting the irrigated areas are crop limitations induced by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), low irrigation efficiency (average of 59%), small farm size, deficient conservation of the conveyance system. In some areas we could find additional problems like soils with low irrigation potential, high energy costs, low enterprise aptitude, incipient environmental problems (nitrates concentrations affecting some aquifers).
Spanish Partners.
One of of the Spanish partners is located in the pilot area and represents a major public stakeholder in water management and agriculture in the region : the Extramaduran Regional Government's Agriculture and Environment Department. Staff from the Centro de Investigación La Orden-Valdesequera, a research centre located on a farm close to Guadajira (Badajoz), and also from the Servicio de Ordenación de Regadios (SORE) participate in PLEIADeS.
The second partner is an internationally recognised research centre: The Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, IAS) which was created in 1992 in Córdoba with a scientific program directed at the sustainability of the agricultural systems, with a specific commitment to Mediterranean agricultural systems.
The third Spanish partner is also the Project Coordinator: the Instituto de Desarrollo Regional (IDR), an RTD centre in the Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha (UCLM) whose Remote Sensing and GIS Section has been involved in the development of Remote Sensing and GIS-based methods for agro-environmental management including support to Irrigation Advisory Services through numerous national and international research projects.