It still hasn’t rained and the reservoirs in the swamps have been declining. As the main water consuming sector, agriculture is the focus of all eyes. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, on which the main irrigated areas of Catalonia depend, has already warned that if it does not rain between now and June, the restrictions on irrigation in the Segre basin will increase. On the other hand, the lack of rain is already harming rainfed crops, which represent 67% of the total. It should be remembered that the stress caused by water and heat last summer reduced the yields of rainfed crops by up to 80% in the country as a whole, according to data from the Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers (COAG).
While some look at the sky waiting for rain, others look at the ground. The global Save Soil movement and soil scientists call for “urgent attention” to revitalize soils, “an essential measure to help mitigate drought, forest fires and the state of climate change in the medium and long termâ€, assures the organization.
“The soil, in regenerative agriculture, acts like a sponge, while eroded soils are not capable of absorbing as much water,” explains Pilar Andrés Pastor, a researcher at the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (Creaf) and president of the specialized section. in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Society for Ecological Restoration. “Regenerated soils have a much greater capacity to retain water,” agrees Catherine Preece, a researcher at the biosystems sustainability program at the Institute for Agro-Food Research and Technology (Irta).
Regenerative agriculture focuses on recovering the fertility and quality of the soil in a natural way, without synthetic fertilizers. In Catalonia, it is still largely unknown, but not in the United States or Australia, with regions accustomed to suffering severe periods of drought. In these countries there are numerous success stories of farmers who have made the transition to regenerative. A good example is that of James Sweetapple, viticulturist, winemaker and owner of Cargo Road Wines, who managed to increase his wine production by 11.24% while Australia suffered the worst drought in 100 years.
Its greater water retention capacity is not the only advantage of regenerative agriculture. In a round table organized by Save Soil, which brought together 134 scientists, farmers and organizations from 31 countries, Alisher Mirzabaev, a senior researcher at the Center for Research at the University of Bonn, said that for every euro invested in soil restoration, obtain between two and nine euros of benefits in 30 years. Preece points out that this is a credible figure, since “regenerative agriculture provides higher yields” and “behaves better against pests and diseases.”
Broadly speaking, Andrés explains that the transition to this new agricultural model implies “not plowing or leaving the soil bare, but always leaving a plant cover, not using chemical synthetic products and replacing mineral fertilizers with organic ones.” The Creaf researcher acknowledges that the first three or four years are for adaptation and that they can be complex, but once they are over, “economically in the long term it is an investment.”
Regenerated soils are large carbon sinks, making agriculture a great ally in the fight against the climate crisis.
