Orihuela (Alicante) (EFE).- A group of researchers from the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) has designed a new sustainable irrigation system whose purpose is to recover the water and nutrients already used in the plantations for later reuse, which It would contribute to achieving water self-sufficiency for farmers based on the circular economy.
The design of this sustainable irrigation device is part of the SIRIS project, which has been carried out since last September by Professor Pablo Melgarejo and his team from the UMH Department of Plant Production and Microbiology.
Currently, these experts apply it on a pilot scale in an experimental plot of 7,500 square meters, within the Orihuela Higher Polytechnic School (EPSO-UMH), in the province of Alicante, with orange trees as a food crop -specifically, the Orange variety Navelina- due to the importance and representativeness of citriculture in the Vega Baja area.
An innovative procedure
This is a procedure that has never before been tested or proposed in fruit growing at a national and international level, consisting of installing a mechanized drainage system directly on the ground to collect both excess water from irrigation and rainwater for subsequent reuse in crops, explained to EFE Melgarejo and one of the UMH researchers participating in the project, Dámaris Núñez Gómez.
“With SIRIS we could avoid to a large extent the flooding of the cultivated soil due to abundant rainfall, in the same way that a greater volume of water would be available for storage and later use in the plantation”, they highlighted.
They have also pointed out that irrigation water carries certain elements (nutrients, mineral salts and others) that provide salinity. This accumulates in the soil and when it reaches a certain limit, which depends on the type of crop and soil, it directly affects production.
guarantee productivity
For this reason, they have said, it is necessary to apply a greater amount of water than is strictly required by the plants to guarantee the maintenance of soil salinity and, with it, productivity.
With the system devised, the water used in excess of irrigation would be recovered with its nutrients for its reuse in crops, which would allow a reduction in agricultural water demands and would also mean savings in fertilizers.
In addition, the new irrigation method, which could be applied to other types of fruit trees and in many horticultural crops, collects agricultural leachate and reduces contamination of the subsoil or groundwater.
With this sustainable irrigation project it is intended to give farmers tools towards water, energy and nutritional self-sufficiency. The estimated savings of SIRIS are quantified in up to 40-50% for water, around 50% for energy and approximately 20% for nutrients (mainly nitrates), but all this will be ratified and specified “with rigor at the end of this project (2025) and in the following years”, the researchers specified.
different options
“At the moment, the project is studying various theses or hypotheses; that is to say, we have applied the system in different ways to know and evaluate what its real use would be like in the plantations. For example, we have the installation of SIRIS in a more traditional cultivation system that involves the use of drainage ditches with gravel; another way would be the proposal to be implanted in new plantations and a third consists of its implementation in exploitations already consolidated with adult trees”, they have specified.
All the proposed experiments will be studied, evaluated and compared during the life of the project to determine their influence on the development of the plants, their production and quality. Being, in this case, a fruit plantation (orange trees), the experiments are intended to be maintained for at least 8 to 10 years.
Practical solutions
This innovative irrigation system has been conceived by Professor Pablo Melgarejo, who, with his experience in the agricultural sector and his technical-scientific knowledge, seeks to provide practical solutions to the real problems of irrigated farmers.
It is also based on the background of the consolidated research group in Fruit Growing and Production Techniques of the UMH, which has been working for more than 25 years in the control of cultivation conditions, in trials to control soil evaporation and in the improvement of crops and management practices, among other areas, but always focused on fruit trees and production techniques.
The SIRIS project is part of the AGROALNEXT program, which has been financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation with funds from the European Union Next Generation and the Generalitat. EFE