The Future of Modern Agriculture - Without Water!

Without water, the agricultural sector cannot survive, thus posing biggest challenge for the future of modern agriculture. For this reason, intensive production and auxiliary industry fair to be held at the Palacio de Congresos De Aguadulce (Almería) will open its conference cycle with a water block,   in order to offer solutions and foster a forum for discussion on the future of water for crop irrigation. 

Problems of concern to the scientific community, especially to the University of Almería, which has seen the need to create a specialized chair in the research of water-related issues, and which will make known José Antonio Salinas, UAL Professor, during the morning of Wednesday, May 22 as part of the Infoagro Exhibition conferences. 

A fact of special importance in the largest development center of intensive agriculture in Spain, as is the Spanish southeast: from Murcia to the costa malagueña, passing through Granada and finding the greatest concentration in the province of Almería, curiously, one of the areas with the most water deficit in Spain. According to the Almería water table, it is estimated that the deficit that forms the heart of Europe's Orchard amounts to 163 Hm3 per year, a figure made up of the deficiencies of Water Resources existing in the different regions of the province according to their peculiarities, and of which they will account for Fernando Rubio, President of the Central Board of users of the Almanzora Valley; Juan Espinosa, President of the SAT De Regantes De Regantes Campo de Níjar; José Antonio Pérez, president of CGUAL del Bajo Andarax; and Manuel García Quero, president of the Central Board of users of the Almerian West aquifer in spite of the lack of water for irrigation, 500 million Europeans are supplied with fruit and vegetables, which highlights their efficiency in the use of water for irrigation. 

An efficiency that has been achieved thanks to the development of technologies that make it possible to take full advantage of all the irrigation water used; a topic on which professional visitors of the Fair will be able to know the latest developments of the hand of the coordinator of Innovation and Transfer of the Experimental Station Cajamar Las Palmerillas, Juan Carlos Gázquez after whose intervention, María Dolores Fernández, researcher at the same centre it will enrich the issue by explaining how irrigation should be managed to avoid salinization of the soil, a key issue in the Agriculture of the Western Almeria, since, given its proximity to the sea, the soils and water of the area have a great salinization that makes cultivation difficult, one of the historical problems of the Agriculture of the area and that has been tried to manage for decades. 

However, its proximity to the sea, on the other hand, makes it possible to use desalinated water from the sea for the irrigation of crops, as well as the reuse for this purpose of purified water, on which it will inform the conference attendees  the Director of the Ifapa Center in La Mojonera, Salvador Parra Gómez. 

It is a block of conferences in which the protagonists of the use of water, such as the regantes, could not be absent. José Antonio Fernández Maldonado, spokesperson for the Almería water table, opened a forum of dialogue with the users of irrigation water, expressing, in the first instance, the challenges facing the irrigation in the province, as well as detailing the advances that have been made in the last few months in terms of infrastructure facilities, as well as all those actions necessary to enable the sector of intensive production of Almeria continues to evolve, the time to recover those aquifers that have historically been over-exploited, after that you will open a round table on the example of Almeria at the European level on the sustainable management of the irrigation, which can give a voice to the audience through questions and contributions on this topic. 

 You can check the full program of the conference on the official website of Infoagro Exhibition, www.infoagroexhibition.com/es/actividades/conferencias.asp. The conference cycle of the third edition of Infoagro Exhibition will be freely accessible to professional visitors to the exhibition, and to which they will be able to sign up through the following link: https://profesional.infoagroexhibition.com/es/asistir-conferencias