For the first time in the combative history of the rice growers of the Ebro delta for growing their crops in a threatened wetland, producers had to spend the last campaign with half the irrigation water.
The efforts and survival strategies of irrigators and rice growers, with shared interests, and the June rains made it possible to save the campaign with average losses, in the end, of between 20 and 30% of production compared to the last four campaigns. of 135,000 tons, according to data from the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC). “The worst harvest in recent decades,” said the FCAC.
A long-awaited relief, especially if one takes into account the dimension of the threat. “Without the rain, it would have been a tsunami, but we were saved,” explains Javier Casanova, president of the governing board of the Comunitat de Regants de l’Esquerra de l’Ebre, also a rice farmer.
Losing a part of the harvest is very painful when the price of rice, with high demand, is especially good, as has been happening since 2022. The decrease in harvests in other parts of the world, also due to drought, with difficulties for competitors direct markets such as Andalusia or Italy, has contributed to raising the prices of rice from the Ebro delta.
“With climate change, production is decreasing, the rise in prices is a consequence of the lack of water and the decline in harvests. The producer and the consumer suffer,” laments Jordi Casanova, president of Nomen. The rise was especially noticeable two years ago and prices have remained the same, rice growers confirm. Round grain rice continues to be the majority despite the fact that Delta producers are testing other varieties, such as long, seeking to explore new markets.
The variety of bomb rice, highly valued in restaurants, has increased but has the handicap of being less resistant to the adversities caused by the climate emergency. Long-established varieties in the Ebro delta, such as japonica, are adapting better.
The figures are overwhelming. The production of bomb rice in the Ebrense wetland has irregular results, say the rice growers. While the round grain has obtained an average productivity of 4,500 kilos of rice per hectare, the Bomba has fallen in the last campaign to only 800 kilos per hectare. Globally, the Bomba rice harvest has decreased by up to 40%.
Other long grain varieties are also being sought, with more than 3,000 hectares harvested this year. Between the two hemideltas, if all the varieties are added, 22,000 hectares of rice are planted each season.
The sector is robust despite the difficulties arising from the climate crisis in the large rice-producing area of ??Catalonia, one of the most prominent on the peninsula, with a fully consolidated brand. “The Catalan public appreciates Delta rice”, says Joan Castellví, director general of Arrossaires.
Last spring and summer, the drought left Mequinensa (Aragon), the large reservoir of reference for the final stretch of the Ebro River and the rice fields of the Delta, in an almost critical situation. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) reduced the water supply by half in spring and summer and in the Ebro delta they then feared the total loss of their crops if they were left without irrigation.
The reality of Mequinensa, now at 80% capacity, and the rains in Alto Aragón, Navarra and the Basque Country, suggest that for the next rice campaign, which will begin in four months, there will be no restrictions on irrigation. “We are almost guaranteed water,” says Casanova.
Fresh water is the great economic as well as environmental value in this fragile ecosystem between the sea and the Ebro River. “It is the only thing we have,” comments a rice farmer. The loss of land on which to continue planting is the other major concern due to the regression, subsidence and advance of the saline wedge. There are rice fields where salinity makes cultivation unviable. “We are losing the land,” says Casanova.