The Ministry signs four collaboration agreements to modernize 9,000 hectares of irrigated land in Alto Aragón and Málaga
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, attended the signing ceremony of the regulatory agreement for the financing, construction and operation of the modernization works of the irrigations of three Irrigation Communities of the Ministry at the headquarters of the Ministry. Alto Aragón (Orellana, Cartuja de San Juan and Molinar del Flumen) and the Central Users Board of the South of Guaro (Málaga).
The signature of the agreements, made by the president of SEIASA, Joaquín Rodríguez Chaparro and the presidents of the communities of irrigators, will mean an investment of 40 million euros, financed between the Ministry and the Irrigators’ Communities, will allow the modernization of 9,000 hectares and will benefit 1,200 irrigators.
In his speech, García Tejerina has stressed that these agreements will promote investments that will allow progress in the modernization of irrigation, initiated by the Government in 2002 with the National Plan of Irrigation-Horizon 2008 and thanks to which almost a million and a half hectares, with a public investment of 3,800 million euros and an estimated water saving of 3,000 hm3 per year.
The Ministry signs four collaboration agreements to modernize 9,000 hectares of irrigated land in Alto Aragón and Málaga, through an investment of 40 million euros made between the Ministry and the Communities of Irrigators.
With the signing of these agreements, actions will be financed in irrigation infrastructures, for greater efficiency in saving water, greater energy savings, and greater sustainability and care for the environment. “Where there is a modernized irrigation increases the population significantly,” he stressed, as the communities of irrigators play a leading role as generators of wealth and employment.
In this context, the minister stressed that “Spanish agriculture is today more productive and competitive thanks to the development of irrigation.”
He also pointed out that, in the face of climate challenges, irrigation infrastructures must be increasingly efficient in the use of water, since “every drop counts and we must do more with less water, using all the technology at our disposal. ” In this process of modernization, the minister understands that in this area “we trust in your know-how to face the management of water planning”, he pointed out.
National Irrigation Strategy 2018-2025
On the other hand, García Tejerina has assured that the good results achieved with the National Plan of Irrigation-Horizon 2008 “advise to give continuity and develop new lines of action”. Thus, the minister has announced that, soon, the National Irrigation Strategy 2018-2025 will be presented, to complete the modernization of irrigation. The objective is to modernize 800,000 hectares, with an estimated saving of another 1,000 hm3.
As detailed, this strategy conceives irrigation as a key instrument to promote sustainable rural development and achieve productive, efficient, sustainable and profitable agriculture. This is one of the many initiatives that the Ministry will promote throughout this term to ensure that the agri-food sector continues to grow and generate quality employment.
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