The Valencian Community is not in an emergency situation and is in a state of normality, despite the drought. This is the message conveyed by the Ministry of Ecological Agriculture, which met yesterday with representatives of agricultural organizations, the business sector, the Júcar and Segura River Basin Confederations, and experts from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the Center for Environmental Studies of the Mediterranean (CEAM) and the Center for Studies on Desertification (CIDE).
They point out that the water reserves of the Valencian reservoirs, the modernized irrigation systems, the purification, reuse and water saving capacities, as well as the rain reserves from last year “allow the restrictions in the Valencian Community to be avoided, and to continue providing supply to irrigated crops”. This is good news, for now, despite the fact that the Valencian countryside has been warning for weeks about the problems that the lack of rainfall already entails in multiple crops.
The minister of the sector, Isaura Navarro, presided over the meeting in Valencia yesterday and in it she promised to transfer the demands of the sector both to Europe and to the Ministry of Agriculture, “so that they are aware of the reality of Valencian agriculture and what These are the challenges we are facing due to a climate emergency and an increase in temperatures with less rain and drier soils, especially in crops in the south of the Community, which is experiencing a more delicate situationâ€.
Navarro pointed out that “Europe has to update the CAP in the face of this situation of extreme drought and global emergency, and they must take these realities into account when applying the requirements so that our agriculture can receive the necessary aid.” He also hopes the Valencian government that the Ministry includes the Valencian concerns in the Royal Decree that is being prepared on the drought.
However, and although no restrictions will be applied for the moment, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, did assume yesterday that in the current climate context it will be necessary to “take measures”, since he pointed out that “we are facing a situation of climate change ” and “extraordinary drought” that predict a “complex autumn”.
Puig met yesterday with irrigators from the Acequia Real del Júcar in Silla on the occasion of the signing of a collaboration agreement on the modernization of irrigation and there he pointed out that the Valencian Community, within the situation that Spain is experiencing in general, “is a little better”, thanks to the rains last year and the modernization of irrigation that have been developed, and that has led it to be an “example”.
