The rains recorded during April have improved the forecasts for cereal crops, especially wheat and sunflower (this year with prospects of giving higher profits) in the Andalusian countryside, where the decisions that may result from the next meeting of the Commission of Desembalse of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir (CHG) are already expected, For which Asaja Andalucía is hopeful that there will be eventual increases in the allocation for irrigation, while COAG maintains that it will ask for an amount that will allow "at least save" the trees of woody crops.
This was stated Friday in statements to Europa Press the president of Asaja Andalusia, Ricardo Serra, and the secretary of organization of COAG-A, Eduardo Lopez, after this week the monthly rainfall report of the CHG revealed that, with regard to the month of April, the average rainfall recorded in the reservoirs of the hydrographic demarcation has been 81 l / m2, 25% higher than the value of the historical average for the same month, which stands at 65 l / m2.
However, in the accumulated of this hydrological year, rainfall in the reservoirs of the basin are 22% below the average established in the last 25 years. A fact that makes Asaja and COAG think that, although some crops will benefit from these rains, in general the forecast is still worse than last year, although that does not mean that within the severity can not think of eventual improvements with respect to the first forecast of the CHG, made in February and that pointed to an allocation of 1,000 cubic meters per hectare if the absence of rainfall persisted.
"I think it has been quite remedied, we had a hard January and February for the field, with practically no rain. It has improved quite a lot, especially for the summer in spring crops, especially in rainfed crops, which, let's say, are circulating quite well. Another thing is irrigation, because despite the rains, there has been an increase, but not enough water capacity reservoirs and therefore remains a fairly critical situation for irrigation, "said Serra.
However, from Asaja they show hope for the next Commission of Desembalse, scheduled for this month. "We are all waiting to see what they tell us. I imagine that there will be something more than last time, but of course it will be far from being a normal year, of course, but even like lastyear," he said, before insisting that he believes that "will increase something".
Serra also noted that, according to the popular saying, "it never rains to everyone's liking" and the increased rainfall in recent days has not been so good for the potato harvest in Almeria or watermelon crops, the great beneficiaries being extensive crops such as wheat or sunflower, for which "this year there is a significant price hope" because of the war in Ukraine, an exporter of this grain.
For his part, Lopez has remarked that the rains fallen in the last two months "have significantly alleviated" the situation of the field, "especially with regard to pastures and woody crops, olive groves, almond and fruit trees, and has also been greatly improved cereal crops, which will finally have a reasonable average campaign".
"But we have not left the water drought," he warned, especially in terms of water availability to ensure irrigation although "the reservoirs have improved". From COAG it has been recalled that last year there were already reductions in this section of 50% for crops with higher endowment and about 40% for woody crops, for which they will ask in the next Commission of Desembalse an endowment that allows "at least save the trees and as far as possible to reach the levels of release that they had last year.
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