That other irrigators look at the model of the Eastern Mancha is no longer a great novelty, in fact it is hardly news anymore. Unless the irrigators are from the other end of the world because they are the irrigators of Australia, who have a problem that the irrigators of La Mancha have already faced, but on a much larger scale.
In Australia, droughts are much more intense and prolonged than in Spain – the longest lasted decades – and, at the same time, 65% of water consumption goes to irrigation, which represents around 12,000-13,000 cubic hectometres of water per year. Some of its crops are large consumers of water, such as rice, cotton or sugar cane.
In addition, the most common irrigation technology is by gravity (more than 50%) although the other techniques are represented, such as sprinkler irrigation or drip irrigation. When the last great drought occurred in this country, the consequences of which still endure, the government, researchers and farmers of the country-continent looked for someone with experience.
And that ‘someone’ was the Central Board of Irrigators of La Mancha Oriental that, after the great drought of 1995-1996, had developed with the UCLM and the Confederación del Júcar one of the first irrigation control projects through remote sensing with satellites of the European Special Agency (ESA), called Ermot.
(More information in the printed edition)
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