Effects of the EU agricultural subsidies on the irrigation management in Spain

The decoupling of the subsidies due to the Mid-Term Review of the CAP has affected the use of inputs in general and the irrigation applied in particular for sugar beet and cotton. In the last case, the elimination of the intervention price and the subsequent lowering of the producers selling price have resulted in an extensification of the production with yields 40% lower than the average. From the environmental point of view the reform has increased the cotton irrigation efficiency and it has therefore moved the crop practices toward a more sustainable production systemEl desacoplamiento de las ayudas resultado de la Reforma Intermedia de la PAC, junto a la disminuci&oacute;n en la disponibilidad de agua ha tenido una influencia importante en el uso de insumos en general y en el manejo del agua de riego en particular. Este impacto es especialmente claro en los casos del algod&oacute;n y de la remolacha, cuyas menores aplicaciones de insumos se han traducido en incrementos en los rendimientos cercanos al 40%. Este menor uso de insumos supone a su vez el cambio en los sistemas de producci&oacute;n tradicionales hacia sistemas con menor impacto medioambiental y, por tanto, con mayores garant&iacute;as de sostenibilidad.</p

Effects of the decoupling of the subsidies on agricultural water productivity

In this work several performance indicators such as the Annual Relative Irrigation Supply (ARIS) and the Irrigation Water Productivity (IWP), have been considered to evaluate the changes in the cotton irrigation management due to the decoupling of the European Union Subsidies. For this purpose, a modern irrigation scheme, the Genil–Cabra Irrigation Scheme (GCIS) located in Southern Spain, has been selected. The total irrigated area is 6,900 ha with wheat, olive and cotton as the main crops. The irrigation season 2004/05 was the period when the crop pattern and water management trend changed dramatically. From this year to the present the area cultivated with crops with high water requirements like cotton, sugar beet and maize has been reduced almost by half, while the area with low irrigation requirement crops (winter cereals, sunflower or olive) has increased of 37%. After the decoupling of the EU cotton subsidies in 2006, the cotton agricultural practices have changed toward a less intensive production system, including both, lower water application (ARIS for cotton decreased from values higher than 0.8 to 0.5 in the irrigation season 2006/07) and less agrochemical usage. In terms of sustainability, the reform has increased the cotton irrigation efficiency (IWP for cotton increased from around 0.7 €/m3 to 1.0 €/m3 in the irrigation season 2006/07) and has reduced its environmental impact.CAP Subsidies, Irrigation, Arable Crops, Spain, Agricultural and Food Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impact of climate change on the Andalusian agriculture: Wheat

Seg&uacute;n las previsiones, el sur de Europa se ver&aacute; afectado de manera significativa por un cambio en las condiciones clim&aacute;ticas y, por lo tanto, los sistemas agr&iacute;colas andaluces pueden verse seriamente afectados. As&iacute;, el incremento de temperaturas y la disminuci&oacute;n de las precipitaciones ser&aacute;n los efectos m&aacute;s visibles del cambio clim&aacute;tico y podr&iacute;an tener un efecto negativo sobre el cultivo del trigo. El impacto previsible ser&iacute;a la reducci&oacute;n de las cosechas causada por la disminuci&oacute;n de la transpiraci&oacute;n del cultivo asociada al descenso de las precipitaciones y por los da&ntilde;os generados por olas de calor durante las fases de floraci&oacute;n y llenado del grano. A pesar de estos impactos potenciales, el trigo, comparado con otros cultivos, no es especialmente vulnerable al cambio clim&aacute;tico debido a su gran adaptaci&oacute;n a ambientes semi&aacute;ridos, con frecuentes sequ&iacute;as y elevadas temperaturas. A diferencia de otros cultivos presentes en Andaluc&iacute;a, no se prev&eacute;n grandes diferencias en el impacto entre los diferentes sistemas cerealistas ubicados en el Valle del Guadalquivir. Sin embargo, esta circunstancia no impide que sea necesaria una caracterizaci&oacute;n previa de los sistemas cerealistas andaluces para cualquier tipo de trabajo relacionado con la identificaci&oacute;n del impacto del cambio clim&aacute;tico sobre el sector.</p

Effects of the EU agricultural subsidies on the irrigation management in Spain. The case of a modern irrigation scheme

The decoupling of the subsidies due to the Mid-Term Review of the CAP has affected the use of inputs in general and the irrigation applied in particular for sugar beet and cotton. In the last case, the elimination of the intervention price and the subsequent lowering of the producers&#146; selling price have resulted in an extensification of the production with yields 40% lower than the average. From the environmental point of view the reform has increased the cotton irrigation efficiency and it has therefore moved the crop practices toward a more sustainable production systemEl desacoplamiento de las ayudas resultado de la Reforma Intermedia de la PAC, junto a la disminuci&oacute;n en la disponibilidad de agua ha tenido una influencia importante en el uso de insumos en general y en el manejo del agua de riego en particular. Este impacto es especialmente claro en los casos del algod&oacute;n y de la remolacha, cuyas menores aplicaciones de insumos se han traducido en incrementos en los rendimientos cercanos al 40%. Este menor uso de insumos supone a su vez el cambio en los sistemas de producci&oacute;n tradicionales hacia sistemas con menor impacto medioambiental y, por tanto, con mayores garant&iacute;as de sostenibilidad.</p

Impact of climate change on Andalusian agriculture: olive grove

El cambio clim&aacute;tico puede afectar de manera muy notable a las condiciones clim&aacute;ticas de Andaluc&iacute;a. El incremento de temperaturas y la disminuci&oacute;n de las precipitaciones ser&aacute;n los efectos m&aacute;s visibles del cambio clim&aacute;tico y podr&iacute;an tener un efecto negativo sobre el cultivo del olivo. As&iacute;, el efecto m&aacute;s visible ser&aacute; la reducci&oacute;n de las cosechas causada por la disminuci&oacute;n de la transpiraci&oacute;n del &aacute;rbol asociada al descenso de las precipitaciones, por los da&ntilde;os generados por olas de calor durante la fase de floraci&oacute;n, y por el fallo de floraci&oacute;n por la falta de fr&iacute;o invernal. A pesar de estos impactos potenciales, el cultivo del olivo comparado con otros cultivos no es especialmente vulnerable al cambio clim&aacute;tico, especialmente en los sistemas con acceso al regad&iacute;o. Sin embargo, los diferentes impactos del cambio clim&aacute;tico sobre el cultivo del olivo no se distribuir&aacute;n homog&eacute;neamente por toda Andaluc&iacute;a, observ&aacute;ndose diferencias muy importantes entre las diferentes zonas olivareras. Esta circunstancia hace que la caracterizaci&oacute;n y evaluaci&oacute;n previa de los sistemas olivareros andaluces sea imprescindible para cualquier tipo de trabajo relacionado con la identificaci&oacute;n del impacto del cambio clim&aacute;tico sobre el sector.</p

Effects of the decoupling of the subsidies on agricultural water productivity

In this work several performance indicators such as the Annual Relative Irrigation Supply (ARIS) and the Irrigation Water Productivity (IWP), have been considered to evaluate the changes in the cotton irrigation management due to the decoupling of the European Union Subsidies. For this purpose, a modern irrigation scheme, the Genil–Cabra Irrigation Scheme (GCIS) located in Southern Spain, has been selected. The total irrigated area is 6,900 ha with wheat, olive and cotton as the main crops. The irrigation season 2004/05 was the period when the crop pattern and water management trend changed dramatically. From this year to the present the area cultivated with crops with high water requirements like cotton, sugar beet and maize has been reduced almost by half, while the area with low irrigation requirement crops (winter cereals, sunflower or olive) has increased of 37%. After the decoupling of the EU cotton subsidies in 2006, the cotton agricultural practices have changed toward a less intensive production system, including both, lower water application (ARIS for cotton decreased from values higher than 0.8 to 0.5 in the irrigation season 2006/07) and less agrochemical usage. In terms of sustainability, the reform has increased the cotton irrigation efficiency (IWP for cotton increased from around 0.7 €/m3 to 1.0 €/m3 in the irrigation season 2006/07) and has reduced its environmental impact

Estimating actual irrigation application by remotely sensed evapotranspiration observations

Water managers and policy makers need accurate estimates of real (actual) irrigation applications for effective monitoring of irrigation and efficient irrigation management. However, this information is not readily available at field level for larger irrigation areas. An innovative inverse modeling approach was tested for a field in an irrigation scheme in southern Spain where observed actual evapotranspiration by satellites was used to assess irrigation application amounts. The actual evapotranspiration was used as the basis for an optimization procedure using the physical based SWAP model and the parameter optimization tool PEST. To evaluate the proposed techniques two steps were taken. First, actual observed evapotranspiration from remote sensing was used to optimize two parameters of the SWAP model to determine irrigation applications. Second, a forward-backward approach was applied to test the minimum overpass return time of satellites and the required accuracy of remotely sensed actual evapotranspiration for accurate assessment of irrigation applications. Results indicate that irrigation application amounts can be estimated reasonably accurately, providing data are available at an interval of 15 days or shorter and the accuracy of the signal is 90% or higher.Irrigation Spain Cotton Remote sensing SWAP PEST FutureWater

Estimating actual irrigation application by remotely sensed evapotranspiration observations

Water managers and policy makers need accurate estimates of real (actual) irrigation applications for effective monitoring of irrigation and efficient irrigation management. However, this information is not readily available at field level for larger irrigation areas. An innovative inverse modeling approach was tested for a field in an irrigation scheme in southern Spain where observed actual evapotranspiration by satellites was used to assess irrigation application amounts. The actual evapotranspiration was used as the basis for an optimization procedure using the physical based SWAP model and the parameter optimization tool PEST. To evaluate the proposed techniques two steps were taken. First, actual observed evapotranspiration from remote sensing was used to optimize two parameters of the SWAP model to determine irrigation applications. Second, a forward–backward approach was applied to test the minimum overpass return time of satellites and the required accuracy of remotely sensed actual evapotranspiration for accurate assessment of irrigation applications. Results indicate that irrigation application amounts can be estimated reasonably accurately, providing data are available at an interval of 15 days or shorter and the accuracy of the signal is 90% or higher

An analysis of the tendency of reference evapotranspiration estimates and other climate variables during the last 45 years in Southern Spain

Climate change will have important implications in the agriculture of semi-arid regions, such as Southern Spain, where the expected warmer and drier conditions might augment crop water demand. To evaluate these effects, a data set consisting of observed daily values of air temperature, relative humidity, sunshine duration and wind speed from eight weather stations in Andalusia and covering the period 1960-2005 was used for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ETo). ETo was calculated using five methods: the more complex Penman-Monteith FAO-56 (PM) equation, considered as a reference in this study, and four alternative methods with fewer data requirements, Hargreaves, Blaney-Criddle, Radiation and Priestley-Taylor. These methods were compared to PM with respect to ETo average values and trends. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test was used to evaluate annual and seasonal trends in the main climate variables and ETo. Due to increases in air temperature and solar radiation, and decreases in relative humidity, statistically significant increases in PM-ETo were detected (up to 3.5 mm year-1). Although the Hargreaves equation provided the closest average values to PM, this method did not detect any ETo trend. On the other hand, trends found from Blaney-Criddle and Radiation ETo values were similar to those obtained from PM. In addition, after a local adjustment, these two methods gave accurate ETo average values. Therefore, Blaney-Criddle and Radiation methods have shown themselves to be the most accurate approaches for ETo determination in climate change studies, when available data provided by climate models are limited.Reference evapotranspiration Climate change Temporal trends Penman-Monteith