Irrigation water, a vital element for rice production, has been reduced by half in the Ebro delta due to the drought. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) has communicated a 50% cut in the endowment to the two irrigation communities, up to 250 hm³ for the two delta banks, less than a week before the start of the expected rice campaign.
The unprecedented decision makes the 2023 rice campaign the most uncertain in history. The two irrigation communities have hastily designed, separately, a plan with the aim of guaranteeing the Ebro river water supply to the rice fields until the end of August. If the plant were to run out of water at the beginning of July, with the rice still in the middle of its growth phase, part of the harvest could be lost, even 100% in the worst case.
To avoid this, the two irrigation communities have designed their own strategy, adapted to the characteristics of each of the two hemideltas and the two channels. These are plans that may be modified on the fly depending on the evolution of the drought and the restrictions applied by the CHE. It is also an unprecedented scenario, without previous experiences, which adds complexity to the rice campaign.
The Dreta de l’Ebre Regants Community will choose, as announced yesterday, to carry out intermittent water cuts in the canal for periods of ten consecutive days. When it does provide water, the canal will carry 100% of the expected endowment. Thus, it is expected to be able to guarantee irrigation throughout the campaign despite having half of the endowment for a year without restrictions due to drought.
Having 50% water has also modified the first day of opening of the Dreta de l’Ebre canal, scheduled for this Monday. It will be done five days later, on April 28. The cycles of ten days without water will alternate until the evolution of the restrictions is seen.
The strategy of the channel of l’Esquerra de l’Ebre, which maintains the date of April 28, already scheduled, is very different. Intermittent cuts will not be made, but measures will be introduced to spend much less water and be able to irrigate all the rice fields despite having half the resources. They will also gradually adapt to the drought scenario, with the hope that rain will arrive in the Ebro river basin during the spring.
One factor plays in favor of the Ebro rice growers. More and more fields are planted dry, a booming trend in recent years for various reasons; one of which, the fight against the apple snail plague. There are paddy fields that are already doing dry planting these days, which allows injecting the seeds and being able to spend the first month without water. Dry sowing, more expensive and more complex, is more favorable to the new situation because it saves a month of water. In 2022, a third of the planting in the Delta has already been done dry.
Most of the rice fields in the Ebro delta, however, are flooded first, after the opening of the canals scheduled for next Friday, and planting is carried out with the fields full of water. When they have been flooded, one of the keys is to keep the salinity of the water at bay in an environment as close to the sea as the delta plain. With the contribution of water in half, one of the risks is that the saltpeter rises and kills the rice plant, spoiling part of the production.
The Ebro delta sows 21,000 hectares of rice fields every year. The two cooperatives (Cambra Arrossera del Montsià and Arrossaires del Delta de l’Ebre) produce 60% of the total rice in Catalonia.
