The first working meeting of the LIFE + Regadiox Project on demonstration experiences on sustainable management of irrigation water use to reduce energy expenditure and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions took place today, 12 February.
The RegaDIOX project, involving Fundagro as coordinator and INTIA and UPNA (through the Sustainable Soil Management Group) as partners, is studying how to contribute to the sequestration of atmospheric CO2 and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a Sustainable management of irrigated agriculture, which will result in economic and environmental improvements through an improved agricultural management.
The event was opened by Mr Jesús María Echeverría Azcona, managing director (INTIA); Mr Iñaki Mendioroz Casallo, director of the Regadiox Project (Fundación Fundagro) and Mr Iñigo Virto Quecedo (Sustainable Soil Management Group, UPNA) a member of the Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry area of UPNA.
Mr Luis Orcaray Echeverria, co-ordinator of the Regadiox Project at INTIA, presented the event by analysing the objectives and the development of the project, followed by Mr Joaquín Puig Arrastia (INTIA), who explained the experience and evolution of the irrigation installation systems under the Navarre Canal scheme, and then by Ms Marta Goñi Labat (INTIA), who talked about the demonstration experiences carried out in the field of irrigated parcels and the conclusions obtained from irrigated parcels and the global irrigated network regarding the sustainable management of the use of irrigation water so as to reduce energy expenditure and GHG emissions, the objective of the Life + Regadiox Project.
Then, Ms Idoia Ederra Gil (INTIA) analysed the reduction in energy expenditure and GHG emissions in the area of the collective irrigation network; Ms Jose Manuel Omaña Álvarez (AIMCRA) presented a success story in high power solar irrigation with constant pressure and flow; and Ms Nery Zapata Ruiz (EEAD-CSIC, Aula-Dei of CSIC, Zaragoza) demonstrated how the design and management of pressurised irrigation systems should be developed so as to minimise the energy cost.
The event continued with a debate and ended with the closing speeches of Mr Iñaki Mendioroz Casallo, director of the Regadiox Project (Fundación Fundagro) Mr Alberto Lafarga Arnal, head of the Department for R&D and Experimentation (INTIA) and Mr Alberto Enrique Martín, director of the School of Agricultural Engineers (UPNA).
All the presentations can be downloaded from the project’s website: www.life-regadiox.es
The main objective of the project is to design, demonstrate, test and disseminate the impact that an improved model for the sustainable management of irrigated agriculture can have on the effects of climate change, especially on CO2 capture and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions thanks to agriculture.
This project called RegaDIOX, proposed by actors from the agricultural sector in Navarre, is part of the LIFE + call to promote projects and studies that improve the conservation of the environment and natural habitats in order to stop the loss of biodiversity and to improve diversity of energy resources.
This project has a budget of € 937,666, co-funded by the European Union (50%), for the development of specific actions over the next three years, until the end of 2016.